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

Through the circle of mountains to the south-west and west go four main passes—Mangal Bagh and Bukar leading into the Bara Valley, and the Thabai and Sisobi, or Tsatsobi, into Afghanistan. The former give communication to neighbours, the latter form back-doors or “bolt-holes” into Afghanistan, and the existence of these back-doors constitutes the real difficulty of dealing effectively with the Zakha Khels. The “front-door” is over the Alachi Range, crossed by the Chora, Alachi, Bori, and Bazar Passes, and of these the first named is the easiest, but it leads, as has been already stated, through Malikdin Khel territory.

The Bazar Valley

On the 25th the First Division entered the Bazar Valley in two columns from the immediate vicinity of Ali Musjid, where it had concentrated the day previous. The 1st Brigade moved by the Alachi Pass to Karamna, and the 2nd by way of the Chora Pass to Chora; neither was seriously opposed, but the roads were found to be very difficult. On the 26th the 1st Brigade was only able to march as far as Barg, no more than two and a half miles, but a road presenting extraordinary difficulties to the progress of troops and almost impassable to transport. The same day the 2nd Brigade was advancing to China, with its rearguard harassed all the way; it returned next day to Chora, followed up on both flanks, and reached the Khyber on the 28th and Jamrud on the 29th. The 1st Brigade supported, on the 27th, the retirement of the 2nd Brigade from China, moved back to Karamna on the 28th, and on the next day returned to the Khyber, the rearguard, furnished by the Derbyshire Regiment, being persistently followed up nearly to Lala China in the Khyber.

During the latter part of December and beginning of January 1898, the Peshawar column was frequently engaged with the Zakha Khels about Lundi Kotal, and on all sides punitive measures, accompanied by desultory and indecisive fighting, continued as before. Many of the Afridi clans—the Malikdin Khels, Kambar Khels, Sipah and Kamar Khels—had sent in asking for peace, while bewailing the severity of our terms; but the Aka Khels were obdurate, and the Zakha Khels as defiant as at the very commencement of the campaign, their two most recalcitrant maliks, Khwas Khan and Wali Muhammad Khan, from the secure haven of Afghanistan, exhorting them to stand firm and to continue to resist.

End of Tirah Campaign

The last action of the campaign took place at the Shinkamar Pass on the 29th January, when all the four brigades combined to endeavour to surround the Kajurai plain, where the Afridis were reported to be again grazing their cattle. Few of the columns employed experienced any opposition, but one operating from Mamanai, and belonging to General Westmacott’s brigade, when about to retire was hotly engaged by the enemy, and sustained some seventy casualties; these were chiefly among the Yorkshire Light Infantry and the 36th Sikhs, the last-named regiment losing a splendid frontier soldier in their commanding officer, Colonel John Haughton.

Before the end of February nearly all the Afridi clans had submitted or were making advances towards a settlement; the Khyber Pass had been reopened to kafilas, but the Zakha Khels evinced no real intention of giving in. On the 17th March, therefore, preparations were made for a spring campaign; Sir William Lockhart returned to Jamrud, fresh transport was distributed among the troops, and one of the brigades of the Second Division made a short advance towards the Bara Valley. The effect upon the Zakha Khels was immediate. By the 3rd April all the clans had definitely submitted and given hostages for fines still due; hostilities then ceased and demobilisation commenced, but for some months regular troops were retained in occupation of the Khyber posts.

By November 1898 the arrangements for the government of the Khyber previously in force were practically re-established.

The total casualties during the campaign amounted to 287 killed, 853 wounded and ten missing.

It was hoped that the settlement effected, coupled with the knowledge the Afridis now possessed that no part of their country was inaccessible to British troops, would have proved satisfactory to both sides; and it was noticed as a favourable sign that the enlistment of Pathans, and especially of Afridis, into the regiments of the Indian Army, had never been brisker than during the months immediately succeeding the close of hostilities. It was hardly to be expected that individual raids and outrages would cease, and had any such expectations been cherished they would have speedily been disappointed; but at any rate for a brief term of years it was not considered necessary to undertake military operations against any of the Afridis. But among these tribesmen the mullahs appear to be specially inimical to the British Government—as they probably would be to any civilised administration—while there is also always present in Afghanistan a faction opposed to British interests, and from this faction disaffected tribesmen can safely reckon upon a large measure of support. In 1904 a number of Afridis visited Kabul—whether by invitation or not is not certain—were accorded a very friendly reception, and seem to have returned determined—especially the Zakha Khel members of the deputation—upon a policy of opposition to the British authorities. During the next four years raids, ever increasing in audacity, were committed on and within our border by the Zakha Khels, culminating on the 28th January, 1908, in a raid carried out by some seventy or eighty men upon the city of Peshawar, whence property valued at a lakh of rupees was carried off, the raiders getting clear away. Tribal allowances were stopped in the endeavour to force the more well-behaved tribesmen to undertake the coercion of the Zakha Khel, but they declared their inability to restrain the clan—and their impotence was recognised—while suggesting to the British authorities the occupation of the Bazar Valley, as the only means of dealing effectively with a situation which was rapidly becoming intolerable, since security of life and property on the Kohat and Peshawar borders was seriously menaced.