'Report of Khan Bahadur Maula Bakhsh, Attaché to the Agent to the Governor General of India and Her Britannic Majesty's Consul-General for Khurasan and Sistan, on His Journey from Meshed to Quetta via Turbat-i-Haidari, Kain, Sistan, Kuh-i-Malik Siah and Nushki (7th April to 28th July 1898)' [‎36r] (76/156)

ON HIS JOURNEY FROM MESHED TO QUETTA, 1398.
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ing and contemptuous attitude towards him and the intrigues of interested
parties forced him to offer an open resistance.
Abdul Wahab Beg sometimes went so far as to cause his men to fire rifle
shots at the citadel at night from outside which were answered by the Sartip’s
sentries in the bastions, but no casualties occurred on either side. The conse
quence of these hostilities was that the public affairs of Sistan got into a hope
less disorder; some Kadkhudas obeyed Sarhang Muhammad Beza Khan and
Abdul Wahab Beg ; while others offered their allegiance to Sartip Mir Ma’sum
Khan. This unsatisfactory state of affairs continued for about three months.
During this period the Sartip’s adherents won over most of the people to their
side. The priests who were at first against the Sartip, seeing that the leading
Sardars and the officers of the Kaiu .Regiment, under instructions from the
Chief of Kain, were supporting his (the Sartip’s) cause, followed their example.
Allahyar Khan, Pishkar, remained neutral and quietly watched the course of
events, but in the meantime he was recalled.
“ Towards the middle of May Abdul Wahab Beg collected his friends in
Husainabad one day in order to devise plans for seizing the citadel. Sartip
Mir Ma’sum Khan heard of this and immediately sent a number of armed men
to besiege Husainabad and to arrest Abdul Wabab Beg and his friends. The
arrival of these men at Husainabad alarmed Abdul Wahab Beg’s party and all
its members fled in different directions. Abdul Wahab Beg also effected his
escape and took refuge in the house of Haji Mulla Ismail, the chief priest,
who declined to give him up at the time, but afterwards induced him to go to
the citadel and make peace with the Sartip.
“ On the 17th May, the Sartip, on the advice of his friends, held a council
which was attended by Allahyar Khan and Sardars Khan Jan Khan and
Purdil Khan and all the leading Kadkhudas and priests of Sistan. The chief
priest was also invited to the meeting with Abdul Wahab Beg. After some
deliberations Abdul Wabab Beg was sworn on the Kuran to become an
adherent of the Sartip and to serve him loyally. Abdul Wahab Beg asked for
permission to go to Meshed with the object of using his influence with the
Hashmat-ul-Mulk to reinstate Sartip Mir Ma’sum Khan as Deputy Governor
of Sistan. This was granted, and Sartip Mir Ma’sum Khan promised to make
Abdul Wabab Beg his Pishkar on his reinstatement. This ended the proceed
ings, and the meeting dispersed.
“The following day Abdul Wahab Beg having received news of the death
of his father-in-law, Abbas Khan, Jamalzai, Kadkhuda of Kimak, was making
preparations to go to that village to pay a visit of condolence to his mother
and brothers-in-law, and thence to proceed to Meshed with his family. Sardars
Khan Jan Khan and Purdil Khan and some of the Kadkhudas who bad been
hostile to Abdul Wahab Beg having come to know that he (Abdul Wabab
Beg) was preparing to remove his family to Meshed suspected that he would
not carry out his agreement with Sartip Mir Ma’sum Khan and would probably
instigate the Hashmat-ul-Mulk to punish them severely for the opposition
thev had shown him. Accordingly, they held another private council, in which
they decided to put Abdul Wahab Beg to death. Sartip Mir Ma’sum Khan
was persuaded to agree to this decision, and Ghulam Reza Beg,* the personal
attendant of the Sartip, expressed his
Mentioned in paragraph 60.
readiness to shoot Abdul Wahab Beg.
“ On the 19th May, Abdul Wahab Beg went to the citadel at about 11 a.m-
to obtain the Sartip’s permission to leave for Kimak that day, and after obtain
ing it was returning to his quarters in the Charbagh when Ghulam Reza Beg
followed him and shot him dead outside the citadel with his six-chambered
revolver.
“ Sartip Mir Ma’sum Khan on being informed of what had happened
ordered the murderer’s arrest, but the order was not meant to be carried out,
and the murderer escaped,"in fact, left Sistan quietly with another companion,
both of whom were mounted on the Sartip’s own horses, to take refuge with
the Shaukat-ul-Mulk, Chief of Kain, at Birjand.
“ The murderer was sent by Sartip Mir Ma’sum Kh&n to Meshed at the
beginning of March with Tumans 10,000 in cash for his father, the Hashmat-
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