On 15 July 1887, Evans Gordon was promoted to Captain in the Indian Staff Corps, as Assistant Secretary at the Foreign Department from 1888 to 1892. As political officer in 1888 he was prominently connected with negotiations for the surrender of Ghazi Ayub Khan, who eight years before had defeated a British army at the Battle of Maiwand during the Second Anglo-Afghan War and had laid siege to Khandahar. He sought refuge in Persia, where he entered into negotiations with Sir Mortimer Durand, now ambassador at Teheran. Evans-Gordon took charge of him on his arrival in India and escorted him and his entourage from Karachi to Rawalpindi.