From the Black Mountain to Waziristan / Being an account of the border countries and the more turbulent of the tribes controlled by the north-west frontier province, and of our military relations with them in the past

by H. C. Wylly

In the meantime the situation had undergone some change. Umra Khan had fled to the Asmar border, and thence to Kabul, leaving the resettlement of his territory to the British; the left flank of our line of advance was in a measure menaced by the presence of the Utman Khel, Nawagai and Mamund tribesmen; while intelligence, received on the 21st, that the siege of Chitral had been abandoned, obviated the need for any forced march to its relief such as had been arranged.

From Dir to Ashreth in Chitral territory via the Lowari Pass was twenty-three miles, and the whole of General Gatacre’s column, in spite of the extraordinary difficulties of the road, was concentrated at Ashreth by the 30th April, and was ordered to halt there for the present. On the 10th May the 1st Battalion the Buffs, the Derajat Mountain Battery, and the 4th Company Bengal Sappers and Miners were led by General Gatacre to Chitral, where the Gilgit Column had arrived on the 20th April, and with this the object of the expedition may be said to have been accomplished; Umra Khan, who had actually originated all the trouble, had fled the country, while on the 27th April Sher Afzul, the late claimant to the Mehtarship of Chitral, had been brought into our camp at Dir, having been captured in Bashkar by some of the Khan of Dir’s levies.

Withdrawal of the Force

On the 10th May the troops hitherto serving on the lines of communication were formed into a Fourth Brigade of the Chitral Relief Force, under Brigadier-General Hammond, V.C., C.B., D.S.O., A.D.C., and it was not until the middle of August that some of the troops—mostly of the Fourth Brigade—commenced their return march to India. On the 4th September the Third Brigade ceased to exist; on the 28th General Low’s Headquarters demobilised at Nowshera; and about the same date Brigadier-General Waterfield assumed command of the Malakand Brigade and of all troops remaining beyond the frontier.

On the final withdrawal of the force it was found that while regular troops must continue to be maintained on the Malakand Pass, at Chakdara, and in Chitral territory, it would be possible to keep open the Nowshera-Chitral road by peaceful means, its security from the Swat River to the borders of Chitral territory being maintained by levies, and the route adopted being via Panjkora and Dir.

During this expedition the troops under Lieutenant-General Sir Robert Low had sustained a loss in action of twenty-one killed and 101 wounded; but in addition, and in consequence of fanatical attacks, further casualties were experienced, altogether two soldiers and forty-nine followers having been killed, and three soldiers and forty-seven followers wounded, between the middle of April and the date of the final withdrawal of the force.

After our troops had returned to India the condition of affairs in Bajaur and Dir was generally satisfactory, and the arrangements for the maintenance of the road promised to work well. There was a certain amount of local unrest, as was only perhaps to be expected; but both in 1896 and 1897 the Chitral reliefs marched by the Malakand-Chitral road without experiencing any interference whatever on the part of the tribesmen. At various times both the Khan of Dir and the Khan of Nawagai attempted to extend their influence by force of arms, the one in Jandol, the other in the Babukarra Valley, but both showed themselves ready to yield to the pacificatory influence of the political agent for Dir and Swat. There were rumours also that Umra Khan contemplated revisiting this part of the frontier, but he ultimately decided to return to Kabul.

The whole country had been so recently pacified that it was hardly to be hoped that it would remain quiescent during the disturbances of the year 1897. The Mullahs, always opposed to the establishment of any civilising influence tending to weaken or destroy their supremacy over their peoples, had been busy preaching against the British, and it was known that they were doing their utmost to form a hostile combination of the clans against us; while other outside influences, which need not here be particularly specified, were also known to be in action. The Khans of Dir and Nawagai behaved very well under difficult circumstances, and seem to have done their best to check and stifle sedition, but proved in the end unable altogether to restrain the fanaticism of their followers. When the “Mad Mullah” actually arrived in Swat from Buner in July, 1897, the Khan of Dir was away in Kohistan, but even had he been present it seems improbable that he would have had sufficient influence or power to stem the outbreak, culminating in the attacks upon the Malakand and Chakdara positions described in Chapter V. But on his return to Swat, and when the tide had turned in our favour, both he and the Khan of Nawagai did what in them lay to assist the British Government, by reopening communications and by holding the important river crossings on the Chitral road.

Operations of 1897

Operations of the Malakand Field Force in Dir and Bajaur in 1897.—The attacks on the Malakand and on the Chakdara post, with the composition and early operations of the Malakand Field Force, under Major-General Sir Bindon Blood, have already been described in Chapter V. These operations commenced with the subjection and punishment of the people of Lower and Upper Swat. It had been proposed to deal next with the Utman Khels, but more important events then transpiring, obliged the postponement of the coercion of this tribe; and the news that the forces of the Hadda Mullah, signally defeated on the 9th August by the troops from Peshawar, were advancing into Dir, caused the recall of General Blood’s Second Brigade from Utman Khel territory, and the move of his Third Brigade to Uch in the Adinzai Valley. The Mullah’s gathering now dispersed, and General Blood was directed to co-operate with General Elles in the punishment of the Mohmands, by moving with two brigades through Bajaur via Sado and Nawagai. At Nawagai our troops would be in rear of the Mohmands, who had never before been attacked from the north, and from this place a caravan route leads due south to the Peshawar border, passing Lokerai in the Bohai Valley, where are many Mohmand villages.