Operations against the Mahsuds | |||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Part of World War I | |||||||
![]() A Mahsud village burning during the 1917 operations. [1] From 15–19 June, British forces burnt and looted several abandoned Mahsud villages in their vicinity without opposition. [2] | |||||||
| |||||||
Belligerents | |||||||
Supported by:![]() | Mahsud tribesmen | ||||||
Commanders and leaders | |||||||
Major-General William Benyon | Mahsud leader | ||||||
Units involved | |||||||
| Mahsud tribesmen |
In 1917, the British Empire launched a successful punitive expedition against the Mahsud in British India's North-West Frontier in order to deter raids and restore prestige.
Following a punitive expedition in 1900-02, the Mahsud had signed a peace agreement with the British authorities, bringing conflict to an end for the time being. However, in November 1913, the Mahsud chieftain, Mulla Powinda, died, and his son, Fazl-Din, disregarded the peace agreement and renewed raids, with encouragement from pro-Turkish and anti-British elements in the Afghan government. [5]
Hostilities between the British and the Mahsud began with the "Tank outrage" of April 1914. In this incident, the Mahsud killed Major Dodd, the Political Agent for South Waziristan, in addition to 2 officers and 3 sepoys. Pro-Turkish and Anti-British elements in Kabul would encourage hostilities. [6] From April 1914 to March 1915, the Mahsuds committed 81 raids classed as serious, which do not include numerous cases of cattle lifting, burglary, wire cutting and small offences. [7] In 1916, Viceroy Frederic Thesiger was informed that: [6]
no village is safe, and the Mahsuds raid from their hills right down to the banks of the Indus and Kill, entrap and abduct Hindus. Altogether the position of the people is pitiable, and we can do very little to protect them or even to alleviate their sufferings.
— George Roos-Keppel, January 1916
In March 1917, the Mahsud began raiding into the British Raj. [1] Mahsud attacks throughout the first half of 1917 on pickets, garrisons and convoys belonging to the British prompted a punitive expedition in June. [6] Having been incurred heavy losses in that year by the Mahsud, the British intended to restore their prestige. [6] <re
British forces commanded by Major-General Benyon advanced into Mahsud tribal territory on the 6th. [8] British forces engaged the Mahsud on the 7th, 12th, 19th, 20th, 21st, 23rd, and 24 June. [2] On the 25th, hostilities ceased as the Mahsud began asking for peace. [2] Part of the terms were that the Mahsuds had to hand rifles they had stolen - some of these came into the hands of British troops while they were still there. [2] British troops began withdrawing on 12 July. [2] The final peace agreement came on 10 August 1917 with a Mahsud jirga. [6]
Many details of the conflict are provided in a private letter dating 20 August 1917 by Harry Edward Parker (5 Oct 1895 – 25 Dec 1969). [2] Parker fought as a British soldier in this campaign. [2]
The news of the peace agreement came as a great relief to the India Office. "The North-west frontier of India is now hopefully free of trouble." [6]
With the Mahsud defeated, resources of India were made available for reinforcing fronts elsewhere. In mid-July, it was arranged that 2 battalions would be sent to aid the allied war effort in east Africa. [9]
The Third Anglo-Afghan War was a short war which began on 3 May and ended on 8 August 1919. The new Amir of the Emirate of Afghanistan Amanullah Khan declared a Jihad against the British in the hope to proclaim full independence, as well as to strengthen his own legitimacy. Amanullah's forces invaded British India on three fronts taking advantage of the unrest in India, in an effort to seize the old Afghan provinces west of the River Indus.
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.
South Waziristan District was a district in the Dera Ismail Khan Division of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan, before splitting into the Lower South Waziristan District and the Upper South Waziristan District on 13 April 2022. It covers around 11,585 km2 (4,473 mi2). Waziristan is located in the southwest of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. It is situated between two rivers, the Tochi River to the north and the Gomal River to the south. The region was an independent tribal territory from 1893, separated from both Afghanistan and the British-ruled empire in the subcontinent. Raiding the tribal areas was a constant problem for the British, requiring frequent punitive expeditions between 1860 and 1945. Troops of the British Raj coined a name for this region "Hell's Door Knocker" in recognition of the fearsome reputation of the local fighters and inhospitable terrain. The district headquarter of the South Waziristan district is Wanna. South Waziristan is divided into three administrative subdivisions of Ladha, Sarwakai, and Wanna. These three subdivisions are further divided into eight Tehsils: Ladha, Makin, Sararogha, Sarwakai, Tiarza, Wanna, Barmal, and Toi Khula.
The Indian General Service Medal was a campaign medal approved on 1 January 1909, for issue to officers and men of the British and Indian armies. From 1919, it was also awarded to officers and men of the Royal Air Force, with the Waziristan 1925 clasp awarded solely to the RAF.
Mulla Powinda or Mullah Powindah, born Mohiuddin Maseed (1863–1913), was a religious leader and a freedom fighter from the Pashtun tribe of the Shabi khel Mahsuds, based in Waziristan. He was from Marobi Shabikhel, a village in the present-day Makin Subdivision of South Waziristan. He led a long-standing guerrilla insurgency against the British colonial forces in the late 19th century. And came to prominence by getting the two elders of the Jirga, who were responsible for handing over two Mahsuds wanted by the British authorities for killing a British officer of the Works department. to the Political Agent in 1893.
The First Mohmand campaign was a British military campaign against the Pashtun Mohmand tribe from 1897 to 1898.
Pink's War was an air-to-ground bombardment and strafing campaign carried out by the Royal Air Force, under the command of Wing Commander Richard Pink, against the mountain strongholds of Mahsud tribesmen in South Waziristan in March and April 1925. It was the first independent action by the RAF, and remains the only campaign named after an RAF officer.
The Waziristan campaign 1936–1939 comprised a number of operations conducted in Waziristan by the British Indian Army against the fiercely independent tribesmen that inhabited this region. These operations were conducted in 1936–1939, when operations were undertaken against followers of the Pashtun nationalist Mirzali Khan, also known by the British as the "Faqir of Ipi", a religious and political agitator who was spreading anti-British sentiment in the region and undermining the prestige of the Indian government in Waziristan at the time.
The Operations in the Tochi were carried out by the Indian Army during World War I on the North West Frontier. The Tochi river flows East from the tribal territories, through North Waziristan, to join the Kurram and the Indus rivers. On the 28 and 29 November a raid by 2,000 tribesmen from Khost was defeated by the North Waziristan Militia near Miranshah, on the Tochi. The next January the militia again defeated a raid by tribesmen which had attacked Spina Khaisora. On 25–26 March a force of over 7,000 tribesmen, threatened Miranshah, but was defeated by the Bannu Brigade together with the local militia.
The Waziristan campaign 1919–1920 was a military campaign conducted in Waziristan by British and Indian forces against the fiercely independent tribesmen that inhabited this region. These operations were conducted in 1919–1920, following the unrest that arose in the aftermath of the Third Anglo-Afghan War.
The 46th Punjabis were an infantry regiment of the British Indian Army. It was raised in 1900, as the 46th (Punjab) Regiment of Bengal Infantry. It was designated as the 46th Punjabis in 1903 and became 10th (Training) Battalion of 16th Punjab Regiment in 1922. In 1943, it was converted into the 16th Punjab Regimental Centre. In 1947, the 16th Punjab Regiment was allocated to the Pakistan Army. In 1956, the 1st, 14th, 15th and 16th Punjab Regimental Centres where amalgamated to form the Punjab Regimental Centre.
The 2nd Derajat Mountain Battery (Frontier Force) was an artillery battery in the British Indian Army. The battery was raised in 1851, from disbanded Sikh artillerymen following the Second Sikh War.
The 24th Hazara Mountain Battery (Frontier Force) was an artillery battery of the British Indian Army.
The Bahawalpur Regiment was a regiment of Pakistan Army. The regiment was formed in 1952 from the infantry battalions of the erstwhile Princely State of Bahawalpur, which had acceded to Pakistan in 1947. In 1956, the Bahawalpur Regiment was merged with the Pakistan Army
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. The campaign began in August 1935 where Tanks were used, their first operational use in India, and with help from the Royal Air Force the revolt was suppressed and the Mohmands submitted in October 1935.
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.
Colonel Hugh Rudolph Conway Pettigrew was an officer in the British Indian Army whose memoir of his service with the South Waziristan Scouts on India's North-West Frontier, Frontier Scouts (1964), is a primary source for the study of the military history of that region, as his memoir "It Seemed Very Ordinary": Memoirs of Sixteen Years in the Indian Army 1932–1947 is for the history of the British Indian Army generally.
Major-General Sir William George Lawrence Beynon, KCIE, CB, DSO was a British Indian Army officer.
Waziristan rebellion was a rebellion by the Pashtun leader Faqir of Ipi to secede from Pakistan and establish a separate Pashtun state of Pashtunistan.