by: Abdullah Qazi, 2001
Mohammad Akbar was a major player in the defeat of the British army in the first Anglo-Afghan War (1839-1842). He outsmarted and killed Sir William MacNaughten, a top British official who highly advocated the invasion and subjugation of Afghanistan by the British army. Mohammad Akbar was very ambitious and wanted to regain all the land that was lost by the Afghans, and rebuild another great empire, similar to Ahmad Shah Abdali’s. However, his father, Amir Dost Mohammad, who wanted to work with the British, feared his son’s rise to power. Many believed that Amir Dost Mohammad poisoned his own son at the age of 29. Mohammad Akbar Khan is highly revered by Afghans today, and is seen as a major historical hero. A residential area of Kabul is named after him.