What spice was the prune sized black thing in my curry?

Just had a curry from an excellent pakistani takeaway. I usually know my stuff when it comes to food and spices etc, but I have no idea what this was.

It was a little smaller than a prune, dried and back. It tasted very strongly and the smell was a mixture of aniseed, clove and Dettol! It really smelt like anti-septic throat lozanges.

At first I wondered if it might be sumak, but I believe that's used in turkish and arabic cuisine. Any ideas?