On the 31st the force moved against the Arhanga Pass leading into Afridi Tirah, but the general expectation that the tribesmen would here make a real stand proved unfounded. The pass was captured practically by a single brigade—General Westmacott’s—at the expense of only three casualties, and the 2nd Brigade, First Division, with the whole of the Second Division, hurried on to Maidan, leaving the 1st Brigade of the First Division in the Mastura Valley.
Arrived in Maidan, expeditions were now made into the settlements of the different tribesmen in arms against us. As a preliminary, Bagh was visited on the 1st November. This was about three miles to the west of the Maidan camp, is the political centre of Tirah, and the meeting place of the Afridi jirgahs. On the 9th, a reconnaissance was made of Saran Sar, a pass into the Bara Valley, a number of defensive villages of the Zakha Khel were destroyed, and grain and forage supplies were removed; we sustained a considerable number of casualties in the retirement, the Northampton Regiment especially losing heavily. On the 13th, a force under General Kempster visited the Waran Valley to overawe and punish the Aka Khels, and the house of the notorious mullah, Saiyid Akbar, was destroyed. In the retirement our rearguard was again heavily handled, over 70 casualties being sustained at the hands of the Aka Khel, Zakha Khel, Kamar Khel and Sipah Afridis who took part in the action.
In Afridi Tirah
On the 18th November, the main force moved from Maidan to Bagh, which was considered a better political and strategical centre; and on the 22nd, Sir William Lockhart accompanied thence a force which, under General Westmacott, started on a three days’ reconnaissance to Dwa Toi to explore the approaches to the Bara Valley and to punish the Kuki Khels. In all these expeditions our losses were not light, the rearguard being invariably followed up and harassed; the clans in general, and the Zakha Khel in particular, appeared irreconcilably hostile; and skirmishes and attacks on convoys were of almost daily occurrence. Foraging parties from Mastura camp were also attacked by the Orakzais, but it was evident that the back of the resistance of this tribe had been broken at Dargai, and, indeed, by the 20th November they had accepted our terms and paid their fines in full, both in rifles and in money. The greater part of Afridi Tirah had now been traversed and surveyed; the Chamkannis and westerly Orakzais were visited and punished as mentioned in Chapter XVI., and Sir William Lockhart now resolved to evacuate Tirah and attack the Afridis in their winter settlements near Peshawar.
Heavy baggage was now sent back from Bagh and Mastura to Shinawari, the base was changed from Khushalgarh to Peshawar, and on the 7th December the Maidan and Mastura Valleys were evacuated, the 2nd Brigade of the First Division rejoining its division detailed to march down the Mastura Valley. The Second Division withdrew by the Bara Valley, and experienced some of the heaviest rearguard fighting ever encountered in an Indian frontier campaign.
The march of the First Division was but little opposed throughout. On the 9th the 1st Brigade marched from Haidar Khel into the Waran Valley, destroyed a large number of fortified houses, and also the house of Saiyid Akbar, which had been partially repaired since destroyed by General Kempster’s brigade. In its retirement the Aka Khel and Zakha Khel pressed upon our rearguard, but the losses were not heavy. The remainder of the march down the valley was practically unmolested, and the division was concentrated at Ilmgudar near Peshawar on the 17th November.
In the Bara Valley
General Westmacott’s brigade of the Second Division marched from Bagh on the 7th, through the Shaloba Pass to Dwa Toi, where it was joined on the 9th by General Kempster’s troops, whose march had been delayed, at the outset, by the necessity for destroying the defences of the Kambar Khel and Malikdin Khel, and, during its execution, by the state of the road rendered slippery by rain and congested by the baggage of the advanced brigade. On the 10th, the march of the two brigades was unopposed, but on the 11th, movement and communication were rendered difficult by a thick mist, touch was lost between the two brigades, and the Afridis following up closely, favoured by the mist and abundant cover, inflicted great loss among the transport and followers. Part of the rearguard did not get into camp at all that night, and, seizing some houses, the commander defended his rearguard and a large amount of transport against the attacks of the tribesmen, who kept up a fire all night. On the 12th the Second Division closed up and remained halted. On the 13th the march was resumed, and the tribesmen attacking with great boldness as soon as the rearguard of the rear brigade (General Westmacott’s) left camp, the fighting was continuous throughout the day. The enemy suffered heavily in his attacks on the baggage column and rearguard, but, nothing daunted, came on again and again, making most determined rushes. Firing was incessant throughout the night into the bivouac of Westmacott’s brigade, which encamped where darkness found it, and the brigade was again attacked at daybreak, but the enemy did not on this day follow the column very far or for very long. On the 17th December the two brigades of the Second Division had reached respectively Bara and Mamanai; here they remained for the present guarding the Bara Valley line, while the Peshawar Column and First Division advanced into the Khyber Pass and Bazar Valley.
On the 18th December the Peshawar Column reconnoitred the Khyber Pass as far as Fort Maude; on the 23rd Ali Musjid was occupied; and on the 26th the column marched to Lundi Kotal, finding villages deserted, barracks destroyed, and everywhere damage done to Government property. The Shinwaris living about Lundi Kotal, who had assisted in the early attacks on the Khyber posts, had by now paid up their fines and submitted, and proved their repentance by assisting in picqueting the hills and keeping off Zakha Khel raiders, and even restored some of the property taken away when the serai at Lundi Kotal was looted.
The Bazar Valley, which is one of a series of parallel valleys running almost due east and west, is only about twenty miles long, with an average breadth of between eight and twelve miles from watershed to watershed, and lies at an elevation of 3000 feet. On the north the Alachi Mountains separate it from the Khyber, and on the south the Sur Ghar Range divides it from the Bara Valley. Through the valley the Bazar stream runs almost due east till it joins the Khyber stream at Jabagai. The east end of the valley is narrow, and just before its final debouchure into the Peshawar Plain it contracts into an almost impassable defile. The west end, on the other hand, is comparatively wide and open, and climbs gradually up to the snow-capped range of the Safed Koh, the lower ridges of which form the boundary of the Bazar Valley. The Zakha Khel own this upper portion of the valley. It consists of two main branches, each about two miles broad, enclosing between them an irregular spur. This spur, running out from the main watershed in a series of relatively small hills, ends in an abrupt peak just above China. About two and a half miles east of China the two branch valleys unite, and in the apex of their junction, closing the mouth of the China plain, is an isolated hill known as Khar Ghundai.