Indo-Afghan War
The Indo-Afghan War, also known as the North-West Frontier Crisis or Pathan War, was an armed conflict fought from 1947 to 1949 between the Republic of India and Kingdom of Afghanistan, along with forces aligned to Afghanistan.
Background
To understand the rationale for the Afghan invasion, Afghanistan's links to the Axis and the unstable political situation in the Northwest Frontier must be elaborated upon. Having secured close links to the Axis following Persia's alignment and Turkey's subsequent alliance with Italy, the Afghans were able to secure material aid in a world which was seemingly dooming it to irrelevance. German and Italian hardware was crucial in putting down the Khost rebellion, as well as Germany and Italy being far enough for Zahir Shah to consider aid - they had little interest east of Astrakhan, the United States was busy ensuring stability in Latin America and the Indian Ocean, and the behemoth that was the Republic was in some way, still closely tied to Japan due to Bose.
In 1944, with Afghan governmental policies growing increasingly unpopular among the tribes of the Southern Province - conscription, high taxes, and increased surveillance being the main policies which were objected to - various tribes, including the Safi, Mangal, and Zadran - came into conflict with the Afghan government. After an Afghan attack on the home of the Zadran chieftain, Mazrak Zadran - a supporter of the late King Amanullah - who, ironically, lived in exile in Italy - he retreated into the countryside, and a full-blown rebellion began.
The rebellion was, initially at least, an internal affair - until 1945, when Zadran fled for Quetta, which fell under the Balochistan Agency. This propelled the Afghans to attack Quetta - citing security threats. As rebel leaders began to flee east, Afghanistan invaded the North-West Frontier Province.
Course of war
In Balochistan, the Khan of Kalat gathered his assembly (Shahi Jirga) to discuss the state’s future. Caught in the crossfire, he sent his radical brother Karim Khan to negotiate with the Afghans in Kabul. Although somewhat disconcerted by Karim Khan’s leftist sentiments, the Afghans were able to negotiate with him; Kalat became a de facto vassal of the Afghans, and a way for it to access the sea. The other Baloch states kept their status as more or less tributaries to Kalat, something they had enjoyed under the Raj.
In the NWFP, as Afghan troops entered, a new crisis emerged. Indian forces, led by Habibur Rahman, a native of the region from a local noble family, were sent to repel Afghan troops. They also relied on non-Pashtun local tribes, who viewed the Afghans with suspicion, and in the political sphere, the Pashtun leader Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan. Ghaffar Khan, despite his Pashtun nationalist sympathies, was an ally of the Congress and he urged the Pashtuns not to be seduced by Afghan propaganda.
But in the end, despite this, the Indian forces - bogged down by geography, faced with further rebellion in the east, and hampered by Muslim League National Guard volunteers reluctantly fighting in the name of Afghanistan, would lose. The defeat was a huge blow to India.
Aftermath
The North-West Frontier Province would be assigned a new governor, in the form of Nawab Mohammad Shah Jahan Khan of Dir. He would rule until his death in 1960 and be replaced by his son; with the backing of local tribal leaders such as the Faqir of Ipi.