Roads were laid out for motor traffic; industries, based originally on military requirements, were developed; and education spread.

This movement is the result of an agitation carried on for some months in Waziristan by one Syed Mohammad Sadi, commonly known as the Shami Pir (Syrian imam), a priest from Damascus whose family is connected with the ex-king Amanullah.

A rebellion breaks out in southeast Afghanistan, headed by the Suleiman khel, and the number of the insurgents soon rises to 2,000.

Another slightly different version of the events are described as follows:Pir Shami, the Holy Man from Syria, suddenly appeared in Waziristan in the spring of 1938 and declared King Zahir Shah a usurper and ex-king Amanullah the legitimate ruler of Afghanistan.

With the apparent intention of reinstating Amanullah on the throne, he managed to rally the Mahsuds and the Wazirs around him and marched on Mattun, a provincial town in southern Afghanistan.