as he also raised a Afghan Jezail force, with their firepower in battles actively bringing it to Pollock's favor. Akbar Khan and the Jabbar Khel were waiting for Pollock, in expectation that Pollock's retribution attempt would end in massacre as the army at Gandamak did in an attempt to withdraw. As Pollock's force advanced up the road to Kabul and reached Gandamak, the British troops witnessed the remains of their former comrades, with the bodies still rotting and picked on by vultures eight months after the disaster. As they advanced to Kabul, Pollock began skirmishes with Akbar Khan's army, sending his troops to storm the heights and disperse the enemy with bayonet charges. Akbar Khan was defeated in battle twice in these instances, forcing him to flee north to Ghurband, while Pollock occupied the Bala Hissar unopposed. Kabul, however, was mostly deserted as most of the population had fled to the Koh Daman. The Hindu traders and moneylenders however, stayed behind. A few days after, General Nott arrived in Kabul following his long march from Kandahar. Among the loot brought with him was the sandalwood gates from the tomb of Mahmud of Ghazni which was believed that it was pillaged from the Hindu temple of Somnath leading to the The Proclamation of the Gates, which ordered the British army to bring it back to British India. Despite the fall of Kabul, the British hostages were still in Afghan hands, to which Akbar Khan ordered them moved from Laghman to Bamiyan, seeking to send them to the safety of Khulm. However, Akbar Khan entrusted this task to Muhammad Saleh Muhammad Khan, one of Shah Shuja's cavalry regiment commanders. When Khan Shirin Khan heard Saleh Muhammad was leaving for Bamiyan, he offered him a large sum of money to hand over the hostages. Saleh Muhammad accepted and set out for Kabul, while Khan Shirin Khan and his Jawanshir accompanied by British officers rode out to intercept him and freed the hostages. The rescue mission saw Shelton freed, however, Elphinstone died in captivity in April after succumbing to his wounds and exhaustion. Akbar Khan packed his body in a coffin and sent it to Sale in Jalalabad for burial. However, it was intercepted by Muhammad Shah Ghilzais, who stripped the corpse, pelted rocks to stone the corpse, and attempted to burn it. The burning was prevented by Akbar Khan's escort party, and the