Of the five prisoners first tried, condemned, and duly
hanged, two were signal criminals. One of them, the Kotwal or Mayor of
Cabul, was proved to have superintended the contumelious throwing of the
bodies of the slaughtered Guides of the mission escort into the ditch of
the Balla Hissar. Another was proved to have carried away from the
wrecked Residency a head believed to have been Cavagnari's, and to have
exhibited it on the ridge above the city. The other three and many of
those who were subsequently executed, suffered for the crime of 'treason'
against Yakoub Khan. Probably there was no Afghan who did not approve of
the slaughter of the Envoy, and who would not in his heart have rejoiced
at the annihilation of the British force; but it seems strange law and
stranger justice to hang men for 'treason' against a Sovereign who had
gone over to the enemy. On the curious expedient of temporarily governing
in the name of an Ameer who had deserted his post to save his skin,
comment would be superfluous. Executions continued; few, however, of the
mutinous sepoys who actually took part in the wanton attack on the
British Residency had been secured, and it was judged expedient that
efforts should be made to capture and punish those against whom there was
evidence of that crime, in the shape of the muster-rolls of the regiments
now in the possession of the military authorities.
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