Promoted to command the Bannu Brigade in December 1947, he oversaw Operation Curzon, the name given to the withdrawal of troops from the Tribal Areas in Waziristan, bordering South Eastern Afghanistan. He met with tribal elders and informed them that while he and his soldiers were fellow Muslims and largely Pashtuns, as were the tribesmen, any firing on the withdrawing troops would be countered with a crushing response, in keeping with tribal customs of revenge. The tribes offered no resistance and the entire withdrawal was completed peacefully. Three authors disagree as two units were ambushed: in September 1947 1/4th Gurkha Rifles left Wana and were ambushed in the Shahur Tangi defile, in South Waziristan – they had fifty casualties. The second unit was the 4/5th Punjabis who lost eight dead and twenty-seven wounded in an ambush.