Mahmud's strategy in prosecuting the Insurgency War was to reduce the number of insurgents through peaceful means by, in the words of one commentator, giving them "every chance to surrender and escape from being killed".
Mahmud's tactic for combating the Insurgency War was to utilize non-combat methods to reduce the number of insurgents, as expressed by one expert, who stated that he provided them 'every possibility to surrender and avoid being slain'.