About 3 a.m. on the 19th a weak company of the 4th Sikhs, providing an outpost at the small village of Ghazi Kot, on the left bank of the Indus, was heavily attacked by a large body of Hindustani fanatics. Reinforcements, however, furnished by the 4th Sikhs and 32nd Pioneers, were quickly on the scene, and the enemy were driven off with considerable loss. The following night there was a good deal of firing at Kanar; on the 21st the River Column had reached Palosi via Pirzada Bela; and the Right Column occupied Ril the same day, destroyed Seri on the next, and then returned to Tilli.
On the 23rd the establishment of a bridge at Bakrai was covered by a party of the 4th Sikhs, who were opposed by a large gathering of the enemy on the Diliarai Hill, overlooking Bakrai and about one mile to the north-west of that place. The enemy were driven off the hill, but on the Sikhs and Guides withdrawing to a position lower down, they were followed up so determinedly that Lieut.-Colonel Gaselee of the 4th Sikhs again advanced, and cleared and reoccupied the hill for the night. The fighting had been hand-to-hand, and the enemy—chiefly Chagarzais and Hindustanis—suffered rather heavily.
On the 24th Brigadier-General Hammond took a small force from Tilli to Palosi, and thence next day advanced up the Shal Nala against Darbanai—a village on a knoll jutting out from the main spur into the Indus Valley. The enemy were driven off this commanding position, and on the 27th General Hammond moved into lower Surmal and burnt some of the Chagarzai villages.
Gathering of the Clans
The gatherings of the tribesmen had now increased. There were a number of Bunerwals at Baio and in this neighbourhood, and in the Chagarzai country to the north there appeared to be a coalition of all the clans from Thakot to the Peshawar border—from Buner, Chamla, and from the Amazai and Gadun country. In consequence of these concentrations of clans, a regiment of cavalry and a battalion of infantry were ordered up from Nowshera to Mardan, and, with the troops already in garrison at the last-named place, were held in readiness for service against the Bunerwals; and the reserve brigade from Rawal Pindi was concentrated at Darband. At the same time representations were made to the Buner jirgah that we had no intention of invading either their country or that of the Chagarzais, but that they would be attacked if their forces did not disperse. These warnings had the desired effect, and the Bunerwals returned to their homes, while the lower Hassanzais had already made their submission. Towards the end of April the whole of the country of the Akazais, who still remained recalcitrant, was visited, and shortly after Darband was evacuated and the base transferred to Oghi; but it was not until a month later that the Akazai jirgah at last came in and tendered the unconditional submission of the tribe. The three Isazai divisions, with the Saiyids and Chagarzais of Pariari, consented to the perpetual banishment from their territories of a notorious disturber of the peace, one Hashim Ali, and promised generally to be of good behaviour and to exclude the Hindustani fanatics from their country.
Early in June the bulk of the troops composing the force returned to India, but some remained until the end of November in occupation of Seri and Oghi and of the crest of the Black Mountain.
In these operations—which cost us nine killed and thirty-nine wounded—we had a larger coalition against us than in any other expedition, with the exception of the Ambela outbreak of 1863 and the Pathan revolt of 1897.
In March 1892 the Hassanzais and Mada Khels broke the engagement into which they had entered with the British Government, by permitting Hashim Ali to return to their country and settle at Baio; and accordingly in October a force of 6250 men and two guns, organised in two brigades, advanced from Darband under Major-General Sir William Lockhart. The Indus was crossed at Marer, and on the 6th October the two brigades advanced on Baio—the First Brigade from Wale and the Second Brigade from Manjakot. Baio was found deserted, and was destroyed, as was also Doba, a Mada Khel village. Demolitions were also carried out in Manja Kot, Karor, Garhi and Nawekili, and the force was back on the 11th October at Darband, where it was broken up. None of the tribesmen offered any resistance, and there were no casualties, but the troops suffered a good deal from fever and also from cholera.
End of the Operations
Since this expedition the Black Mountain clans and their neighbours have given no serious trouble.