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He found the condition in Baltistan a good deal worse which he has so described:-

“In Baltistan things looked a good deal worse. This is a beautiful country, at that time accessible only from Srinagar by a road through Kargil, overshadowed by the Ice wall of the Karakorams towering up to heaven; a land where Nanga parbat dwarfs majestically even the innumerable and un-named-peaks surrounding her. Here the population is Muslim, the country it self struck me even some decades ago as possessing promising possibilities of development as a tourist centre. It has abundance of game, big and small, fertile valleys, wonderful fruit and flowers, water-power sufficient for local hydroelectric installations, and some of the finest mountaineering in the world. But nothing was done for the people – hardly and naturally cheerful mountain folk, who looked poor and miserable, plainly over-awed by the garrison of state troops occupying the ancient Askandria Fort at Skardu. The maharajah owned the land; the people were tenant-at-will, entirely at the mercy of high-handed state officials and receiving nothing in return for the heavy taxes they paid”.

After the death of Ali Shah, his son Hassan Khan succeeded him in 1904. After his death, his son Mohammad Ali Shah succeeded him in 1915 during whose life time the War of Liberation broke out in Northern Kashmir in 1948. After Gilgit had been liberated, the Azad Forces marched on Skardu. The Dogra garrison of Skardu was attacked on the dawn on 11^th February, 1948. Due to incessant firing, the ammunition of the Azad Forces was exhausted and they had no other alternative but to retire. The forces returned to village Qomrah. Raja Mohammad Ali Shah along with his family, fled to village Gayul in a destitute condition leaving behind all his property. His house was looted by the enemy and the Sikh Shopkeepers it is said that Muhammad Ali shah had a sword on which was inscribed the name of Khalifa Haroon-ur-Rashid. Two matchlocks one purported to have been received from Emperor Shah Jahan were also among the relics. . The name of Emperor was written in gold water. Another matchlock had the name of Sultan Shah Murad written on it. It is presumed that is belonged to Sultan Murad and not to Shah Murad, the grandson of Ali Sher Khan Anchan. The other matchlocks were called, ‘Gulzar’ ‘ROOMI and KIRMAN’. It is also said that after plunder the above relics of the Moghal and other period, reached distant places beyond the boundary of Baltistan.