In the distant past, around mid of the year 1700 when the law and order of Peshawar had touched its nadir the then ruler of Peshawar Maharaja Ranjit Singh hired the services of a Frenchman Paolo Avitabile employed in the service of then king of Persia as a mercenary and placed him as governor of the Frontier province now known as KPK.
Earlier he had impressed Ranjit Singh while working as Governor of Wazirabad in restoring its law and order and crushing criminals with an iron hand. He didn’t disappoint Ranjit Singh and very soon through an iron fisted hand he crushed the criminals by hanging them upside down on the lamp posts and trees of Peshawar.
In the local Hindku parlance of Peshawar he was called as Abu Tabella and such was his fear instilled in the heart of local people of Peshawar that the mothers used to scare their naughty children to behave otherwise she would call Abu Tabella to set them right.
Abu Tabella served as a Governor of Peshawar after its former Governor Hari Singh Nalwa got killed in action in the then Khyber Agency against the local tribesmen .
