File 1341/1921 Pt 1 'Khorassan Intelligence Summaries 1921-1922' [‎435v] (518/1080)

4
OPERATIONS.
The only authentic account received during the week is that pertaining
to the attack by a gendarme column on the fort of Aliak in the Turbat-i-
Sheikh Jam area. The tribesmen were defeated losing, it is said, twenty
killed to the gendarmes’ two. A grandiloquent communique was issued by the
Meshed authorities.
One of Muhammad Taqi Khan’s leaders Haji Abbas Khan, Salar Ashjar,
a Taimari chief, was reported killed, hut later indications seem to prove he
died of natural causes. His body was brought to Meshed and interred in the
Shrine precincts.
CASUALTIES.
Wounded men have been arriving during the week, including five officers.
Some are suffering from sword cuts, which would seem to show that the tribes
men get to close quarters. Some 26 cases have arrived from the Turbat and
40 from the Quchan front.
POLITICAL.
Despite the dominance of Muhammad Taqi Khan and his co-adjutors of
the Nationalist Committee, who are aiming at the conquest of Persia and the
dissolution of the monarchy, there is in existence another party whose aims
are antagonistic to the foregoing. This includes many of the ecclesiastics
and servants of the Shrine. The expected arrival of the chief ecclesiastic of
Khorasan, the Aghazada, is awaited with considerable interest for, although
he may be ridden over by Muhammad Taqi Khan, he will form a focus of
considerable magnetic power for whichever side he espouses.
Conversations with Tehran are of course not' possible, though if they
were there is no aoubt a large section of the Meshed community which would
vmh to open up negotiations with the Central Government. Conversations
have been conducted, however, by telegraph between certain persons in
transpfred bhaukat ' ul ‘ Mulk at Bir iand though their purport has not
Mullas are preaching that the purchase of loot from the disturbed areas
is against the laws of Islam.
PROPAGANDA.
An unpleasant feature of the present situation is the inevitable anti-
Hil 1S 0 ^i 1 n 0Pa thp n ^R 1I J 1 dUl ^ e< l in „ b y. Mullamm a<l Taqi Khan and his party.
Mis organ, the “Bahar” is affording a flagrant examnle of thU In the
™?m«rof 0 ^B l! i P i r ’ referre i Co ^ laatw “ i ’ s oocurml i
thoroughlv^temied h^bi a ^ Sei f Ce > ^ r01 r —Colonel Mahmud Khan, one
DISAFEECTION.
more cases otMefeddurfamor^nffl to * ake sanctuary in the Shrine. Two
from Qucban the latter if • ^ c ® rs are . re P orted » one from Meshed and one
^ucnan the latter being Captain Mirza Ali Khan who is reported