During 1880 the Mahsuds, associated with the Darwesh Khels and Dawaris, committed several serious outrages on our border, and, with the termination of the operations in Afghanistan, the Government now found itself able to send the long contemplated expedition into the Mahsud country. Accordingly, early in 1881 arrangements were put in hand for coercing that tribe. While the force was in process of assembly, the Mahsuds, who had been offered a final opportunity of peaceful submission, sent in certain headmen to make terms and thus avoid punishment; but these belonged almost exclusively to clans living immediately without our borders, while those sections among the more inaccessible hills, and which had for long been opposed to peace with the British Government, were still entirely unrepresented among those suing for peace.
During the third week in April, after a great council at Kaniguram, our terms were to some extent complied with, but the submission of the tribe generally was still incomplete. Several important sub-divisions, notably the Nana Khel division of the Bahlolzais, were still defiant, and it was decided that this division must be coerced. The force assembled at Tank, composed entirely of troops of the Punjab Frontier Force with some additions, was placed under command of Brigadier-General T. G. Kennedy, C.B., and consisted of twelve guns, 290 sabres and 3662 bayonets; while a reserve brigade—eight guns, 326 sabres and 3380 bayonets—under Brigadier-General J. J. H. Gordon, C.B., was formed at Bannu.
Expedition of 1881
Expedition against the Mahsud Wazirs, 1881.—The main force moved from Tank by Kot Khirgi to Jandola, which was reached on the 23rd April, when the pass leading to the Shahur Valley was reconnoitred without opposition. The column then moved on by Haidari Kach and Turam China to Barwand, and so far, although the rearguard was always fired on, there had been no casualties and nothing in the way of serious opposition had been experienced, while some of the headmen had already submitted. The force now moved on towards the Khaisora Valley, and on arrival in this neighbourhood the Alizais made terms, but the troops were now in the country of the Nana Khels, who showed a good deal of hostility. On the 5th May General Kennedy arrived at Kaniguram via Kundiwan, having had a sharp affair with some 500 Bahlolzais holding the densely wooded slopes about Shah Alum. Makin was reached on the 10th, by which date the Bannu column was encamped at Razmak, only seven miles distant.
On the 16th April this brigade had moved from Bannu and had taken up a position on the right bank of the Tochi River near Miriam, commanding the entrances of the Khaisora, Tochi and Shakto valleys. General Gordon, in compliance with instructions received from General Kennedy, marched up the Khaisora Valley to Razmak via Saroba and Razani practically unopposed, being accompanied by representatives of the sections inhabiting the valley. A convoy of supplies was passed from here to Makin, and on the 12th May the Bannu column began to retire, visiting the Shakto Valley en route and having only one casualty in the force. On the next day General Kennedy marched from Makin via Janjal to Jandola, and arrived on the 18th unmolested at Tank, where the column was broken up. The total British casualties during these operations only amounted to thirty-two killed and wounded.
The Mahsuds seemed now ready and eager to make peace, but still our terms remained uncomplied with, and the blockade consequently was reimposed; and it was not until September of this year, and after several fruitless attempts to play off the Amir against the British Government, that the Mahsuds finally gave in. They surrendered the remaining ones among the proscribed ringleaders in the 1879 outrages, but since the aggregate of the fines accumulated against them now appeared quite beyond their powers of payment, it was agreed that the amount should gradually be liquidated by a tax imposed on all Mahsud goods imported into our territory, and for a breathing space at least quiet reigned on this portion of the border.
Mahsud and Darwesh Khels.—The behaviour of all the Wazirs, Mahsuds and Darwesh Khels, may be said to have been uniformly good for a further period of ten years, dating from the conclusion of the expedition of 1881. In 1883 the Mahsuds gave facilities for the survey of the country about Khajuri Kach; in 1889 the Zhob Valley was traversed by us; the Gomal Pass was opened up, and our protectorate extended over the Zhob Valley and the country between the Gomal and Pishin; a railway survey was carried out in the Gomal; and our influence was strengthened among the Mahsuds and the Wazirs of Wana by the granting of new or increased allowances. There had, of course, been periods of disquiet, occasioned and accentuated by the fact that at this time there was no definite boundary line demarcating British and Afghan spheres of influence. The difficulty of restraining the tribesmen within limits and of inflicting punishment for outrages was increased, and a delicate situation thereby created, owing to the fact that it was often impossible to determine whether offenders were subjects of the Amir of Afghanistan, or came within the pale of British influence. It was then, in October 1893, that, after long negotiations, Sir Mortimer Durand went to Kabul and returned with an agreement signed by the Amir. By this settlement the respective spheres of influence of the British Government and of the ruler of Afghanistan were carefully defined. The Amir agreed to retire from Chageh in Baluchistan, and withdrew his objections to the extension of the railway to New Chaman, west of the Kwaja Amran Range, and to the establishment of a British cantonment at that place; the Bajauris, Afridis and Wazirs were left outside the limits of his influence, but Asmar, and the Kunar valley above it as far as Chanak, and the tract of Birmal, bordering on the Wazir country, were included within his territory; on the other hand, a somewhat clumsy arrangement, and one almost certain to be fruitful of future trouble, had been come to, whereby the country of the Mohmands had been arbitrarily divided by the watershed of the Kunar and Panjkhora rivers.
Delimitation Commission
Early in 1894 the Government of India began to make preparations for the demarcation, in co-operation with the Commissioners appointed by the Amir, of the western boundaries of Waziristan; and the attitude of the Wazirs being, as ever, uncertain, it was decided to maintain a considerable force on the frontier. Work was to commence at Domandi on the 15th October, and some weeks prior to this a proclamation was issued to the tribesmen, fully explaining the objects and limitations of the expedition; the news seemed to be generally received in Waziristan in a friendly spirit.
The following troops under Brigadier-General Turner were detailed to form the escort: