The Afghan pressure on Chitral, which had already been drawn close to the Indian empire through its allegiance to Kashmir in late 1876, assumed seriousness in 1882 when Kabul claimed this territory as one of its protected states. Though the Government of India was quick in rebutting such claims, the reported Russian intrigues in and around Chitral caused additional concern. The newly established Resident in Kashmir could hardly extend effective control of the Durbar, or even of the British Indian Government, over the turbulent chiefships of Hunza and Nagar.

The Panjdeh crisis of 1885 also helped in focusing British military opinion on the need to make elaborate arrangements for the defence of the north-west frontier. So it was not a mere coincidence that the year 1885 was marked by the dispatch of two exploratory missions, one under Col.

Lockhart, the Deputy Quarter Master General of India, to survey the lands south of the Hindu Kush via Gilgit and Chitral, and the other under Ney Elias to Chinese Turkestan and the Pamirs. Meanwhile the Defence Committee's recommendation for extending the Srinagar-Rawalpindi cart-road to Gilgit and Chitral had been approved by Dufferin. The new Commander-in-Chief, F. Roberts, even suggested that we should have political control over the country around Chitral and Gilgit in order to secure the approaches to the former by the Dora pass and to the latter through Wakhan.