Wazir Mohammad Akbar Khan

Mohammad Akbar Khan, an Afghan hero, was victorious against the British. The ferocity was such that the 16,500 British garrison with 12,000 support staff were wiped out. Only one survived, of mixed British-Indian garrison, reaches the fort in Jalalabad, on a stumbling pony. Mohammad Akbar Khan was a major player in the defeat of the British army in the first Anglo-Afghan War (1839-1842). He outsmarted and killed William MacNaughten, a top British official who highly advocated the invasion and subjugation of Afghanistan by the British army. Mohammad Akbar Khan was very ambitious and wanted to regain all the land that was lost by the Afghans, and rebuild another great empire, similar to Ahmad Shah Abdali's. However, his father, Dost Mohammad Khan, who wanted to work with the British, feared his son's rise to power. Many believed that Amir Dost Mohammad poisoned his own son at the age of 29. Mohammad Akbar Khan is highly revered by Afghans today, and is seen as a major historical hero. A residential area of Kabul is named after him. By 1843 the nation declares independence, Dost Khan returns to occupy the throne. Wazir Akbar Khan dies in 1844.