NWFP AND THE FIRST WORLD WAR

The Muslims had great regard for the Khilafat-e-Usmania which was held by the sultan of Turkey. Since the time of the Pious Caliphs the Khilafat of Islam had a unique prestige and honor in the hearts of the Muslims. The outbreak of World war-1, accelerated the anti British activities of the Mujahideen in whole sub-continent. In November 1914 when Turkey joined Germany against the British and her allies the Muslims were thrown into anxiety because they had brotherly feelings for the Turks.

The Muslims of the NWFP also could not remain unaffected from these developments. The British were aware of the situation, so they converged great attention towards the control of situation in this province from its geographical significance and religious zeal of the Pathans of settled areas in general and that of tribal belt in particular, strict preventive measures were undertaken by the government to keep a vigilant eye over the movements of the Pathans.

Mr. Allah Bakhsh Yousafi has given a very clear account of the of the British behavior during the world war-1. He has elaborated in his book " Sarhad awr Jadoo-Jeh-e-Azadi" that even in the schools the debates on the whole Role Act were banned and that due to the name of their Cricket Team "Qasim Cricket Club" which the British took before the name of "Qasim Villiam" the then German king; they were brought the police station for investigation.

The strategic position on the north west frontier was of immense value for British India particularly the territory of Afghanistan was in this connection an important area for them. Amir Habibullah Khan the King of Afghanistan was following the neutral policy during the war most probably with the British convenience and was perpetually trying his utmost to keep the Afghanistan from war. He did not patronage the Turko-German Mission which had arrived in Afghanistan in 1916 for soliciting the Amir's help for allowing his territory against the British raids and to join the holy war in favour of the Caliphate. But the Amir showed his inability for doing so. he had also declined the persuasion of Maulana Sindhi and other requests made by the leaders of the Mujahideen and stood firm in his non-interference policy which was indeed beneficial to the British cause and later on resulted in his murder near Jalalabad.