In regard to the circumstances attending the partition of the Mohmand country, the author of _Afghanistan_ wrote as follows in the _United Service Magazine_ of April, 1908: “At the period of the Durand Mission the Government of India laid claim to the entire region—Bulund Khel, Mohmandstan, Asmar and Yaghistan, the latter embracing Chitral, Bajaur, Swat, Buner, Dir, Chilas and Waziristan. The Amir put forward a demand for Chageh in Baluchistan and the Asmar Valley, which he had previously occupied, and objected to the British pretensions. In point of fact, the rights of the Government of India had been already established by conquest and by moral superiority, since this zone, the home of border ruffians, had always required the watchful initiative of a strong Government.... Ultimately, after long discussion, the negotiations concluded, when it was revealed that at needless sacrifice the Asmar Valley, commanding the approach to the Pamir-Chitral region and south-eastern Afghanistan, and of great importance to strategic considerations on the Indian frontier, had been surrendered to the Amir, the Birmal tract separated from Waziristan, and an ethnic absurdity perpetrated where the Mohmands’ country had been divided by the watershed of the Kunar and Panjkora Rivers.”
On the 12th June, 1894, Mr. Udny, the Commissioner of Peshawar, who had been nominated as chief of the Mohmand Boundary Delimitation Commission, issued a proclamation to “all Bajauri, Mohmand and other tribes inhabiting the country towards the Indian Empire from the Kabul River to the southern limit of Chitral,” giving what he called “a brief sketch of the boundary.” He stated that “whereas the kingdom of Great Britain has agreed that his Highness the Amir should retain in his possession the country of Asmar on the north of Chanak, situated on the Kunar River, or the River of Kashkar, the boundary demarcation will commence from Chanak in a south-westerly direction up to Kunar, and at a distance of a few English miles from the bank of the Kunar River towards Bajaur. From Kunar the boundary line goes southwards, and, taking a bend, ascends the hills close to Satala Sar, which hills divide the watershed between the Kunar and Panjkora rivers. From Satala Sar the boundary passes over the crest of the hill, on one side of which the waters flowing from the Dag Hills fall into the Panjkora River, whilst the waters on the other side passing through the Satala Valley, fall into the Kabul River. And in the centre of this hill lies the kotal of Satala. The extreme end of the boundary touches the Kabul River, in the vicinity of Palosi. From a review of the above details, you will understand that, in addition to the countries watered by the Kunar River which lie towards the limits of the Indian dominions, his Highness the Amir has agreed not to interfere in all that country, the eastern waters of which fall into the Panjkora River, nor to interfere or stretch his hand in that quarter of the Mohmand country, the waters of which fall into the Kabul River below Palosi.”