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The First Mohmand campaign was a British military campaign against the Mohmand from 1897 to 1898.
| First Mohmand campaign | |||||||
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| Belligerents | |||||||
| Mohmand | |||||||
The First Mohmand campaign was a British military campaign against the Mohmand from 1897 to 1898.
The Mohmand are a Pashtun tribe who inhabit the hilly country to the north-west of Peshawar, in the North-West Frontier Province of what the British considered part of the British Empire, now Pakistan. British punitive expeditions had been sent against the Mohmand in 1851–1852, 1854, 1864, 1879, 1880, but the principal operations were those of 1897–1898. [1]
The year 1897 witnessed an almost general outbreak among the tribes on the north-west frontier of India. The tribes involved were practically independent, but the new frontier arranged with the amir of Afghanistan, and demarcated by Sir Mortimer Durand's commission of 1893–1894 (the Durand Line), brought them within the British sphere of influence. [1]
The fear of these tribes was annexation, and the hostility shown during the demarcation led to the Waziri expedition of 1894. Other causes, however, contributed to bring about the outbreak of 1897. The easy victory of the Turks over the Greeks in the Greco-Turkish War (1897) gave rise to excitement throughout the Muslim world, and the publication by the Amir of Afghanistan Abdur Rahman Khan, in his assumed capacity of king of Islam, of a religious work, in portions of which antipathy to Christians could be read, aroused militancy among the border Muslims. [1]
The growing unrest was not recognized, and all appeared quiet, when, on 10 June 1897, a detachment of Indian troops escorting a British frontier officer was suddenly attacked during the mid-day halt in the Tochi Valley, where, since the Waziri expedition of 1894-95, certain armed posts had been retained by the government of India. On 29 July, with equal suddenness, the fortified posts at Chakdara and Malakand, in the Swat valley, which had been held since the Chitral expedition of 1895, were for several days fiercely assailed by the usually peaceful Swatis under the leadership of the "Mad Mullah" in the Siege of Malakand. [1]
On 8 August the village of Shabkadar (Shankarghar), within a few miles of Peshawar, and in British territory, was raided by the Mohmand, while the Afridis besieged the fortified posts on the Samana ridge, which had been maintained since the expeditions of 1888 and 1891. Finally, the Afridis, within a few days, captured all the British posts in the Khyber Pass. [1]
The Malakand Field Force commanded by Major-General Sir Bindon Blood was assembled at Nowshera. The post at Malakand was reached on 1 August, and on the following day Chakdara was relieved. The punishment of the Afridis was deferred till the preparations for the Tirah campaign could be completed. The Mohmand, however, could be immediately dealt with, and against them the two brigades of Sir Bindon Blood's division advanced from Malakand simultaneously with the movement of another division under Major-General Edmond Elles from Peshawar; it was intended that the two columns should effect a junction in Bajour. [1]
About 6 September the two forces advanced, and Major-General Blood reached Nawagai on 14 September, having detached a brigade to cross the Rambat Pass. This brigade being sharply attacked in camp at Markhanai at the foot of the pass on the night of the 14th, was ordered to turn northwards and punish the tribesmen of the Mamund valley. On the 15th Brigadier-General (afterwards Major-General) Jeffreys camped at Inayat Killa, and on the following day he moved up the Mamund valley in three columns, which met with strong resistance. A retirement was ordered, the tribesmen following, and when darkness fell the general, with a battery and a small escort, was cut off, and with difficulty defended some buildings until relieved. The casualties in this action numbered 149. This partial reverse placed General Blood in a position of some difficulty. He determined, however, to remain at Nawagai, awaiting the arrival of General Elles, and sent orders to General Jeffreys to prosecute the operations in the Mamund valley. [1]
From 18 to 23 September these operations were carried on successfully, several villages being burned, and the Mamunds were disheartened. Meanwhile, the camp at Nawagai was heavily attacked on the night of the 20th by about 4,000 men belonging to the Hadda Mullah's following. The attack was repulsed with loss, and on the 21st Generals Blood and Elles met at Lakarai. The junction having been effected, the latter, in accordance with the scheme, advanced to deal with the Upper Mohmand in the Jarobi and Koda Khel valleys, and they were soon brought to reason by his well-conducted operations. The work of the Peshawar division was now accomplished, and it returned to take part in the Tirah campaign. Its total casualties were about 30 killed and wounded. [1]
On the 22nd General Blood joined General Jeffreys, and on the 24th he started with his staff for Panjkora. On the 27th General Jeffreys resumed punitive operations in the Mamund valley, destroying numerous villages. On the 30th he encountered strong opposition at Agrah, and had 61 casualties. On 2 October General Blood arrived at Inayat Killa with reinforcements, and on the 5th the Mamunds tendered their submission. The total British loss in the Mamund valley was 282 out of a force which never exceeded 1,200 men. After marching into Buner, and revisiting the scenes of the Umbeyla campaign of 1863, the Malakand field-force was broken up on 21 January. The objects of the expedition were completely attained, in spite of the great natural difficulties of the country. The employment of imperial service troops with the Peshawar column marked a new departure in frontier campaigns. [1]
Winston Churchill accompanied the expedition as a second lieutenant and war correspondent, and wrote his first non-fiction book on it, The Story of the Malakand Field Force . In his despatches, Churchill described the Pathans as "vermin", [2] and that they had "a strong aboriginal propensity to kill." [3] Churchill vividly recorded his exploits in his My Early Life : "We proceeded systematically, village by village, and we destroyed the houses, filled up the wells, blew down the towers, cut down the great shady trees, burned the crops and broke the reservoirs in punitive devastation. So long as the villages were in the plain, this was quite easy. The tribesmen sat on the mountains and sullenly watched the destruction of their homes and means of livelihood….At the end of a fortnight the valley was a desert." [4]
The Afrīdī is a Pashtun tribe present day tribal areas in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan
Colonel James Morris Colquhoun Colvin VC was an English recipient of the Victoria Cross, the highest and most prestigious award for gallantry in the face of the enemy that can be awarded to a member of a British or Commonwealth force.
The North-West Frontier was a region of the British Indian Empire. It remains the western frontier of present-day Pakistan, extending from the Pamir Knot in the north to the Koh-i-Malik Siah in the west, and separating the modern Pakistani frontier regions of North-West Frontier Province, Federally Administered Tribal Areas and Balochistan from neighbouring Afghanistan in the west. The borderline between is officially known as the Durand Line and divides Pashtun inhabitants of these provinces from Pashtuns in eastern Afghanistan.
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Tirah, also spelled Terah, also called the Tirah Valley, is a mountainous tract located in the Orakzai District and the southern part of the Khyber District, lying between the Khyber Pass and the Khanki Valley in Pakistan.
Malakand District is a district in the Malakand Division of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan.
The Story of the Malakand Field Force: An Episode of Frontier War was an 1898 book written by Winston Churchill; it was his first published work of non-fiction.
The siege of Malakand was the 26 July – 2 August 1897 siege of the British garrison in the Malakand region of colonial British India's North West Frontier Province. The British faced a force of Pashtun tribesmen whose tribal lands had been bisected by the Durand Line, the 1,519 mile (2,445 km) border between Afghanistan and British India drawn up at the end of the Anglo-Afghan wars to help hold back what the British feared to be the Russian Empire's spread of influence towards the Indian subcontinent.
General Sir Bindon Blood, was a British Army commander who served in Egypt, Afghanistan, India, and South Africa.
The Mullagori or Mulagori or Malagori is a Pashtun tribe present in Khyber District, tribal areas in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan. Historically, they are one of the smallest tribes of ethnic Pashtuns. They are considered as a sub-tribe of Momand Pashtun Ghoryakhel confederacy.
Lieutenant-Colonel Sir Henry Beauchamp St John, was a British Indian Army and Indian Political Service officer.
The Bazar Valley campaign of 1908 was a punitive expedition against the Zakka Khel clan of the Afridi, a Pakhtun tribe inhabiting the mountains on the Peshawar border of the North West Frontier province of British India.
The Chitral Expedition was a military expedition in 1895 sent by the British authorities to relieve the fort at Chitral, which was under siege after a local coup following the death of the old ruler. An intervening British force of about 400 men was besieged in the fort until it was relieved by two expeditions, a small one from Gilgit and a larger one from Peshawar.
The Chamkani, is a sub-tribe of Ghoryakhel Pashtuns. According to Muhammad Hayat Khan, author of Hayat-i-Afghani Chamkani are descendants of Ibrahim Ghoria. They are also related to Mohmand, Daudzai and Khalil through their Sarbani descent.
The Kakazai, also known as Loi, Loe, or Loye Mamund, a division of the Mamund clan, are a Pashtun tribe part of the larger Tarkani tribe who are primarily settled in Bajaur Agency, Pakistan, but originally hailed from the Laghman province of Afghanistan. However, it has grown and scattered around to such an extent that it is recognized as tribe of its own.
The Second Mohmand campaign of 1935 was a British military campaign against the Mohmand tribes in the Northwest Frontier area of British India, now Pakistan. Tanks were used, the first operational use of tanks in India. The First Mohmand campaign in 1897–98 followed earlier military expeditions in 1851–1852, 1854, 1864, 1879, 1880. After the First Mohmand campaign, there was the Mohmand expedition of 1908 and the Mohmand and Bajaur operations of 1933, taking about a month in August.
The Afridi Redshirt Rebellion was a military campaign conducted by British and Indian armies against Afridi tribesmen 'AJAB KHAN AFRIDI in the North West Frontier region of the Indian Empire, now in Pakistan in 1930–1931.
Sir Richard Udny, KCSI was an official in British India, best known for his role in defining the border with the Emirate of Afghanistan. He took part in the border survey for the stretch between the Hindu Kush range in the north-east to Landi Kotal. This demarcation was the first stage in making the Durand Line of 1893 concrete in geographical terms, a process that lasted into the 20th century.
General Sir Frederick Campbell (1860-1943) was a British officer who is probably his most famous for the Younghusband Expedition to Tibet in 1903-1904.
