Abu Tabela. Summary executions became usual, and it is said that he would have people executed by throwing them from the top of Mahabat Khan Mosque. The American adventurer Alexander Gardner wrote about Avitabile's rule in Peshawar: "Under his rule small pains are taken to distinguish between innocence and guilt, and many a man, ignorant of the alleged crime, pays for it with his life". While this brutality was shocking to visiting Europeans (in the words of Sir Henry Lawrence: he acts like a savage among savage men, instead of showing them that a Christian can wield the iron sceptre without staining it by needless cruelty), it proved both successful in maintaining order and even popular among the peaceful inhabitants. His iron fist rule over Peshawar has made a place for him in local folklore. Even today unruly children in the city are brought to control by invoking Abu Tabela's name. In times of unrest, law-abiding citizens send a small wish for the return of an Abu Tabela to finally re-impose law and order. The control of this strategic position brought him in contact with the British army during the First Anglo-Afghan War (1839–42), where he was able to render vital assistance. As governor of Peshawar, Avitabile controlled the southern entrance to the Khyber Pass, although the Maharaja did not allow for the British to move through the Sikh Empire to reach the Khyber pass, he ordered Avitabile to assist the British through the pass itself, into Afghanistan. During Elphinstone's advance in 1839, the British were well received in Peshawar and their officers received a princely treatment. Captain Havelock spent a month in Peshawar, and describes the splendour of Avitabile's court in his memoirs. He also gives a favourable characterisation of the governor: "He is, moreover, a frank, gay, and good-humoured person, as well as an excellent and skilful officer." Avitabile was also a scholar and an engineer, who worked very closely with the most brilliant Sikh engineer Lehna Singh Majithia. When the British returned in 1842, to avenge the defeat of Elphinstone, they were given every possible assistance by Avitabile's government, while he was still in the employ of the Sikh Empire as the Afghans had been a longtime enemy of the Sikhs. Avitabile remained in the position of Governor during the First Anglo-Afghan War until he left in 1843. Having secured his retirement in Europe, he resigned his