Beginning in January 1833, Shah Shujah Durrani, the deposed Afghan emperor, led an expedition to re-claim his throne.

[14] Shah Shujah thus lost the crown and fled to exile in the Sikh Empire, where he began plans to reclaim Afghanistan under his own rule.

[5][1] In May 1834, Shah Shujah reached Kandahar and besieged the city, but had trouble effectively storming it due to lack of siege equipment and poor quality of troops.

[4] On 29 June, the Shah Shujah ordered his men to scale the walls of Kandahar with ladders, however they were defeated, with many being killed and wounded from the failed assault.

When Dost Mohammad arrived, skirmishes and clashes broke out even further, and at one point, Shah Shujah chose to fight in the day instead of night, wishing to give his soldiers time to rest after being fatigued.

[17][1] This would not be the last attempt of Shah Shujah to seize the throne of Afghanistan, as in 1839, he, alongside British forces would contend with Dost Mohammad Khan for rule over Kabul in the First Anglo-Afghan War.