AKBAR KHAN MUHAMMAD (d. 1848), son of Dost Muhammad Khan, the ruler of Afghanistan. He was a Hery young man of great dash and daring. Like his father, he was keen to regain the Afghan possessions in India Multan, Kashmir, Attock and Peshawar. In 1837, Dost Muhammad Khan declared a holy war against the Sikhs and attacked the fortress of Jamrud at the entrance to the Khaibar Pass. An attack led by Akbar Khan was repulsed, though the valiant Sikh general, Hari Singh Nalva, was killed in the action.
DOST MUHAMMAD KHAN. AMIR (1791-1863), ruler of Kabul and Qandahar, was the son of Painda Khan (executed 1799), the Barakzai chief. Dost Muhammad`s first engagement with the Sikhs was at Attock, the Afghan citadel, which had fallen into the hands of the Sikhs in June 1813. In the conflict which lasted three months, Dost Muhammad Khan, who himself led the attack in the battle of Haidru, 8 km from Attock, was badly mauled by the Sikh force commanded by Diwan Mohkam Chand. As a result of the fighting among the members of the Durrani and Barakzai families, Dost Muhammad finally established himself in 1823 in Kabul, Kashmir having been lost to the Sikhs in 1819.
