“And to violate a safe-conduct once given, whatever form it takes, is as exceptional on the Pathan border, as in the Scotch Highlands; no greater insult could be put on the Khan or the clan giving it. Plowden tells of a Turi Malik who gave his cap as a badraga to an Afridi Kafila, which was plundered, and fell himself in avenging it. He is hospitable, this moss-trooper, even to allowing the women of the house to wait upon strangers, and in a way he is religious. He divides mankind into straight and crooked. The Shiahs—and all Turis are Shiahs—are straight, the rest are crooked. To a stranger the question takes a masonic form; the Turi salute is a finger placed perpendicularly on the forehead for a straight man, and a contorted one for a crooked man. If the stranger is well-advised, he will give the countersign with a perpendicular finger.”
Friendship for Englishmen
Enriquez says, “The Turis are on the most friendly terms with the Englishmen who live among them; and the heartiness of their salutation when they meet a Sahib is quite refreshing to listen to. The Turis look upon the British Government as their deliverer from the oppression of their rapacious Sunni neighbours, and even consider that their Shiah religion resembles, to a certain extent, Christianity. They are not forgetful that Christians fought and died for them in their wars against the Sunnis, and are even in a few cases buried in the most sacred Shiah shrines.... Their dress is very distinctive.... The sleeves of their shirts have blue cuffs, and there is a thin red piping, or an ornamental border round the neck. In the cold weather they wear a coat made out of a cloth called ‘sharai,’ which is woven from sheep’s wool.”
On their eastern border the Turis have the Chamkannis, Orakzais and Zaimukhts; on the south the Wazirs, and on the west Afghanistan, or the tribes within the sphere of influence of the Amir of that country. The total male population of the Turi country is about 6000. Every Turi considers himself to be the spiritual disciple (murid) of some Saiyid (pir), and from this practice of pir-muridi four great families of Saiyids have arisen. Of these one family composes one faction, the Mian Murid, while the remaining three compose the Drewandi faction. The first, while the weaker, is the most united, the other the more patriotic, but since besides these there are also two political factions, it results that there is no tribal combination, each Turi being an absolute democrat who thinks himself as good as his neighbour, and cannot bear to see anybody in authority over him.
In the middle of the last century the Kurram, and especially the Miranzai Valley, was to the Deputy-Commissioner of Kohat a source of endless trouble. Wazirs, Turis, Zaimukhts and Orakzais were constantly assembling, either as tribal parties or in combination, to raid the well-disposed villages on the Hangu and Khattak frontiers, and, yet, whenever trouble threatened them from without, the people of Miranzai were loud in their calls for aid. Small punitive expeditions were sent into the valley in 1851, 1855 and 1856 to deal with these raiders, and especially with the Turis, who, since the first annexation of the Kohat district, had given much trouble—leaguing with other tribesmen to raid the Miranzai Valley, harbouring fugitives, encouraging all to resist, and frequently attacking Bangash and Khattak villages. In 1855 Darsamand was thus raided. In 1856 the Kurram Valley was traversed right up to the Peiwar Kotal, and the Turis, who had intended to refuse compliance with our demands, thinking they could prevail on the surrounding tribes to make common cause with them, very soon changed their language and policy, and came to terms. Since those days the Turis have not merely given no trouble, but have helped us on several occasions.
We Occupy the Kurram
The universal detestation of Afghan rule has, no doubt, greatly assisted us to gain the confidence of the Turis. Our advance into the Kurram Valley was hailed with delight. “There can be no doubt,” wrote Major Collett, “that the people in the Kurram Valley were glad to see us, and that, smarting, as they then were, under Sher Ali’s late exactions, they regarded General Roberts’ troops as deliverers from an oppressive Government.” During the operations in the valley the Turis furnished transport and supplies, and a levy was raised among them of from 350 to 400 men under their own Maliks. Prior to our withdrawal in 1880 the tribe made a formal petition to the Indian Government that they should for the future be independent of Kabul. This request was granted, but the experiment then instituted of managing, unaided, their own affairs did not prove a success. Faction fighting broke out, and for a long period complete anarchy prevailed, and, finally, in 1893 we occupied the Kurram Valley. In the Turis we now possess a true and loyal race occupying a country of great strategical advantages.
The Turis helped our troops against the Zaimukhts in 1879, and against the Chamkannis, twenty years later. They stood by us, too, in the troublous year of 1897, and their eagerness for the fray when hostilities first broke out, is thus described in an Indian newspaper of that date: “The road into Sadda, on the 3rd and 4th September, presented a most extraordinary sight. On the 3rd, before the news of the advance of reinforcements had been confirmed by letter, bands upon bands of friendly Turis, horse and foot, could be seen making their way from Upper Kurram to Sadda, and other points likely to be attacked in Lower Kurram. The big attack was expected on the night of the 3rd September; all these men were going down to help to beat off the common enemy; they all gladly responded to the call of the Political Officer, and every village sent a contingent, just as they would have done in the old days before we took over the safe custody of the valley. Many an old raider’s heart must have beat quicker as he thought of the past, when he had ridden forth in just the same way on some foray far across the border. Breech-loaders were very scarce, but two-thirds of the men had jazails, and all of them had the long Pathan knife stuck through their kummerbunds, while here and there was a revolver or pistol, the latter generally of native workmanship. To look at their merry faces, one would have imagined they were off to a wedding or other tamasha, and not going to fight against odds for hearth and home. The Turi cavalry, especially, took things with evident lightness of heart. Here and there a grass chupli would be stuck up in the middle of the road, and the next minute it was to be seen at the end of a lance, high in the air.... The following day they were to be seen returning to their homes; the arrival of reinforcements in the very nick of time had made their presence no longer necessary in Lower Kurram.”
Loyalty of the Turis
There are, at this date, some nine hundred Turis in the Kurram Militia. So assured is their loyalty that a systematic effort is now being made to arm them better. Their weapons are all registered, and means are available on the spot for arming the Turi lashkar on emergency.