“We chose our senior commander Mullah Fazlullah as our new ameer,” a spokesman for the group told Reuters by phone from an undisclosed location on Thursday.

Some were imprisoned on the flimsiest pretexts, all had to appear before the monarch in the most abject manner, and many were constrained to bribe the favourite wives of the ameers to secure their requests.

The durbar brought out princes and princelings from east, south and west, and even three or four wild-eyed ameers from the north.

Abdur-Rah`man, the ameer of Afghanistan, subsidised by the English; b.

Under the strong rule of the late ameer the country for the most part enjoyed internal peace, but this was broken by the revolt of the Hazaras in 1892, which was severely suppressed.