How Did the British Empire Handle The Arms Traffic Between Afghanistan And The Frontier Regions Of Pakistan

Khyber Pass, 1900 A.D.

Came across an interesting historical piece from Maggie's Farm.

The Arms Trade On The Frontier Of India, 1890-1914

The North-West Frontier of India represented by far the most strategically sensitive frontier of the British Empire during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, combining an external threat from imperial Russia and Afghanistan along with a local and insistent problem of tribal control.* Indeed, the defence of British India from a Russian advance into Afghanistan and onwards towards the subcontinent dominated British policy on the North-West Frontier and brought imperial troops into close contact with the trans-border Pathan tribes. The warlike proclivities of these fiercely independent inhabitants of a belt of mountainous terrain tribal territory lying between India and Afghanistan, capable of fielding an estimated 213,961 heavily armed fighting men used to handling weapons as part of everyday life, profoundly concerned the Indian Army during the 1880s and 1890s.

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My Comment: Plus ca change .... plus c'est le meme chose. The more things change, the more that they stay the same.