Major-General Watkis.
1st Battalion Royal Munster Fusiliers. 1st Battalion 5th Gurkhas. 1st Battalion 6th Gurkhas. 55th Coke’s Rifles. No. 9 Company 2nd Sappers and Miners. 23rd Peshawar Mountain Battery.
DIVISIONAL TROOPS.
Two Squadrons 19th Lancers. Two Squadrons 37th Lancers. 23rd Sikh Pioneers. 25th Punjabis. No. 3 Mountain Battery. Four Guns, 22nd Derajat Mountain Battery. No. 6 Company 1st Sappers and Miners. 800 Khyber Rifles.
The main force, under General Willcocks, left Peshawar on the 13th February, and on the 15th, marching by the Chora Pass, entered the Bazar Valley. The Second Brigade, with some divisional troops, pushed on rapidly through Malikdin Khel country, accompanied by little or no transport and all ranks carrying three days rations on the person, and bivouacked that night near Walai. The latter part of the march was opposed. The First Brigade followed more leisurely, escorting the baggage and supply columns of both brigades, and halted for the night at Chora, sending forward next day the Second Brigade baggage and supplies. On the same day a small column under Colonel Roos-Keppel, political adviser with the force, and composed of a wing of the 2nd Battalion 5th Gurkhas and the Khyber Rifles, left Lundi Kotal, and, marching by the Bazar Pass, arrived that evening at China. There was no opposition en route, but the camps, both here and at Walai, were subjected to the usual “sniping” after nightfall.
The Walai camp was particularly well chosen; it was well covered, was surrounded by a circle of hills admitting of effective picqueting, had a secure line of communication with Chora, and, commanding as it did the whole valley, was especially well placed for carrying out punitive operations among the Zakha Khels.
In the Bazar Valley
From the 17th to the 24th the troops were engaged in destroying towers and defensive enclosures, and in collecting wood and fodder; the columns were always followed up by the enemy, who, however, usually suffered heavily; the whole of the Bazar Valley was visited and important surveys were completed; sniping occurred on most nights; but already by the 23rd the resistance offered was no more than half-hearted, and that afternoon a tolerably representative jirgah came in professing anxiety to effect a settlement. An agreement was rendered difficult by the presence about the Thabai Pass of a gathering of Shinwaris and Mohmands, who had come to offer their services to the Zakha Khels, but these were prevailed upon to withdraw; and after protracted negotiations, lasting from the 25th to the 27th, a satisfactory settlement was arrived at. On the 29th the force withdrew wholly unmolested to the Khyber and Peshawar, the Afridi jirgah having undertaken the punishment of raiders, responsibility for future good behaviour, and restitution, as far as possible, of stolen property.
The casualties in this short and successful campaign amounted to three killed and thirty-seven wounded.