According to Mohan Lal, much of this fighting and destruction was anyway ill judged and unnecessary: the Kohistan chiefs had made it clear that they were willing to call a halt to their insurgency and only wished for the promises made to them the previous year to be honoured. One particularly important chief, Mir Masjidi Khan, the revered Naqsbandi Pir who was the most influential leader in the area, was actually on the verge of surrendering, and had given his word he would come into Kabul and “take refuge in the mausoleum of Timur Shah, and thence proceed to wait upon the Shah and the Envoy.”
