Since the territories of the above-mentioned tribes are either situated in, or are most easily approached from, the Miranzai and Kurram, the account of these peoples had better be prefaced by some description of those valleys. During the days of Sikh rule on the frontier, Miranzai remained under the Governor of Kohat, but not much interference was attempted. On the annexation of the Punjab by the Government of India, Miranzai, being an outlying territory, was overlooked when possession was taken of the rest of Kohat; the Kabul Government, accordingly, made arrangements to occupy Miranzai, the Amir’s son, Sirdar Muhammad Azim, who was then Governor of Kurram, sending in 1851 some cavalry to hold the villages of Bilandkhel, Thal and Torawari. The people of Miranzai, thereupon, appealed to the Indian Government, and petitioned that their country might be included in British territory, offering to pay a yearly revenue of Rs. 7500. Their request was acceded to, and in August 1861, a proclamation was issued 390declaring Miranzai to be a portion of the Kohat district.
This country has been thus described by Oliver in his book Across the Border: “The Miranzai Valley, perhaps the pleasantest part of the Kohat district, has been arbitrarily divided into an Upper and a Lower, though the river which runs east, down the latter, is a feeder of the Kohat toi, or stream, and goes thence to the Indus, while the Ishkali, which runs west along the Upper, is a branch of the Kurram. Both Upper and Lower Miranzai, equally with the Kurram, lie along the base of the great Safed Koh Range, the white peaks of which tower over everything else, a gigantic barrier between this and the still more famous Khyber route to Kabul.... It is a land of mountains, small and great, of rocks and of stones. The rivers that rush down the steep slopes are at one time dangerous torrents, at others yielding with difficulty a little water from the holes dug in their beds, with small and circumscribed, but well-cultivated valleys, where grain and fruit flourish abundantly, varied with raviney wastes, growing little beyond the dwarf palm which affords materials for one of the few staple industries the country possesses. These, again, are interspersed by grassy tracts, on which are pastured abnormally small cattle and exceptionally fat-tailed sheep.” The Miranzai Valley is about forty miles in length, and its width varies from three to seven miles; it extends from Thal to Raisan—where the Khanki River breaks through the hills into the valley—and from the Zaimukht and Orakzai hills to those of the Khattaks.
The Kurram Valley
391Up to the time of the second Afghan war the Kurram Valley was ruled by the Afghans, but it came under our influence during the campaign, and was finally occupied by us in the autumn of 1893. The country is now administered by the Indian Government, and is ruled by a political officer, the valley being to all intents and purposes British territory.
“Once past Thal,” says Oliver, “and the banks of the Kurram River reached—more or less all along are cornfields and fruit gardens, mulberry groves and fertile glades, passing up to ridges crested by oak and olive, yew trees and pines; the range behind again culminating in the snow-capped peak of Sika Ram, which rises over 15,000 feet high. Some parts of the valley have the reputation of being unhealthy, for the same reason as Bannu, but there are few more fertile spots along the Afghan Border than the Kurram.” The valley is about sixty miles long and in some parts not more than ten miles broad; it is bounded on the west by Afghanistan, on the east by the country of the Chamkannis, Zaimukhts and Orakzais, on the south by Waziristan, while on the north Kurram is separated from the country of the Shinwaris by the Safed Koh Range. “Dark pine forests cover the lower ranges, and naked cliffs and snowy peaks rise high above them. The chain is so situated that the rays of the setting sun fall full upon it, and the effect on a chill winter evening, when the pale snows flush scarlet and crimson, while darkness is already gathering in the valley below, is very fine.”
392Enriquez, from whose work, The Pathan Borderland, quotation has already been made, tells us that “Lower Kurram,[133] that is as far as Alizai, differs very essentially from the Upper Kurram and in appearance resembles the Miranzai. The villages are built of rough and irregular blocks of stone interspersed with layers of brushwood. Towers and defensive walls are the exception, and the inhabitants are but poorly armed. The fodder is collected in ricks inside the hamlets, and great stacks of hay and ‘johwar’ are also grouped together in large numbers on rising ground near by. The valley is narrow, and there is little room for cultivation. The trees are few and stunted, and the general appearance of the country is of low hills and broken nullahs, where the usual ‘palosa,’ bera, seneta and mazarai form a thin scrub jungle. Upper Kurram, on the other hand, is wider, and the mountains containing it are more imposing. There is a good deal of cultivation; the villages are larger and far more prosperous looking, and are built chiefly of mud. The more important ones have from eight to ten fortified towers, and are besides protected by high loop-holed walls. A very successful attempt is made to decorate these forts by means of patterns in the brickwork and of crenelations along the upper parapets. They are, moreover, neatly built and kept in good repair. Chenar trees abound and grow to as fine a size as they do in Kashmir. To judge by their girth, many of them must be very old. There are 393willows, mulberries and ‘palosa’ in the valley and the walnuts of Kurram rival those of Tirah.” The valley is said, with pride, to produce four remarkable and marketable commodities—the stone of Malana, the rice of Karman, the wood of Peiwar, and the women of Shalozan—the last a village from which ladies have always been supplied for the Royal zenana in Kabul. The grandmother of the late Amir, Abdur Rahman Khan, was a daughter of the Turi Malik of Shalozan in Kurram.
Value of the Kurram
The Miranzai and Kurram Valleys are of importance as providing an alternative route, practically wholly through friendly territory, from our frontiers to the borders of Afghanistan. A narrow-gauge railway runs from Kohat to Thal, and is eventually, it is stated, to be extended to Parachinar—fifty-six miles further up the Kurram Valley. The Peiwar Kotal is only fifteen miles further west from Parachinar, and is of an elevation of 9200 feet, the onward road then crossing the Shutargardan, or Camel’s Neck Pass, at a height of 11,900 feet, into the Logar Valley leading to Kabul. The route affords a subsidiary line for part of the year, but its closing by snow, and the great altitudes at which the several passes have to be crossed, forbid its being classed as a principal line of communication. During the second Afghan war it was used as a line of advance mainly because Lord Lytton firmly believed in the value of Kurram, being influenced in this, as in many other matters, by his Military Secretary, Colonel, afterwards Sir George, Colley, who wrote: “Personally my hobby is the Kurram—I had long 394ago come to the conclusion that the possession of the Peiwar held the most commanding military position, short of Kabul, in Afghanistan.... The Kurram Valley is mainly fairly open and inhabited by a peaceful agricultural population, so that our communications there will never be troublesome or uncertain.”
Lord Roberts, however, has on the other hand described the Kurram route as no more than a “byroad”; and on its final evacuation at the close of the last phase of the second Afghan war, Sir Frederick Haines, who was then Commander-in-Chief in India, wrote that: “As a line of military communication experience has condemned it, and I abandon it as such without the slightest regret.”
The Bangash.—Of this tribe something has already been said—of their battle near Kohat with the Orakzais, and of the final issue resulting in their holding to the plain country, while the Orakzais remained in the hills. Tradition has it that the Bangash are of Arab origin, and that, pressed by the Ghilzais, they moved eastward about the end of the fourteenth century. Settling then in the Kurram Valley, and expanding further eastward, they drove the Orakzais into the mountains. Dr. Bellew, however, is inclined to think that they are in the main of Scythian origin, and that they came into India with the Central Asian hordes which followed Sabuktagin and Timur. But at the present day it will probably be enough to describe them as a tribe of Pathans who inhabit the 395Kurram and Miranzai Valleys down to Kohat. Bangash families are also settled in Persia and in some parts of India, notably in Farakhabad, the Nawab of which place, who was banished from India for his conduct during the Mutiny, being descended from a Bangash family. They are Gar in politics and partly Shiah and partly Sunni. They enlist readily in the Indian Army and Border Militia, and are thought well of, being quieter than most Pathans.
The Bangash Tribe
“The Kohat, Miranzai and southern part of the Kurram Valley,” Oliver tells us, “are mainly Bangash; those towards Kohat mostly Sunnis, the bulk of the remainder Shiahs. The Westerns wear their beards long, with a few short Jewish ringlets on either side of the face, shaving the rest of the head; the Easterns clip them short; otherwise there is not much difference. Physically they are quite up to the average Pathans, though they are not generally credited with great fighting qualities. A few deal in salt, but they are eminently an agricultural rather than a pastoral people. Reported hospitable, many of them are undoubtedly treacherous and cruel, not specially disposed to wanton violence, but much addicted to thieving. They are rather the victims of raids by their neighbours than raiders themselves”—the Orakzais, in their barren mountains, regretting their old-time homes and occasionally indulging in a foray into Miranzai—“and have generally behaved well from an administrative point of view. Their situation is such, they have had the good sense to see that in this lay their best chance of security.”
396The three main clans of the tribe, now recognised, are as under:
1.
Miranzai.
2.
Samilzai.
3.
Baizai.
The first-named live for the most part in Upper Miranzai—that is to say, west of Kai, but some of them inhabit villages nearer to Kohat, and a few, again, live in the Kurram. The Samilzai are to be found some in the Kurram and some in Lower Miranzai; while the Baizai live chiefly in the Kohat Valley proper. The Baizai claim that in the days of the Mogul emperors they received an allowance for holding the crest of the Kotal of the Kohat Pass; and as a solution of the difficulties about the pass in 1853, to which allusion is made elsewhere, they petitioned to be allowed to resume their ancient responsibilities. Their request was granted, but they proved unable to hold the position against Afridi attack, and an arrangement was come to under which four different clans, the Baizai Bangash included, received grants for keeping open the pass. These they still retain, and up to 1882, when the management of the pass was transferred to the Deputy-Commissioner, the chief of the Baizai was in charge of the Kohat Pass arrangements. The Bangash have themselves given us little or no trouble, but have suffered much by being unusually exposed to the raids of neighbouring tribes.
The Zaimukhts.—This tribe are also known as Zwaimukht and Zaimusht; they are of Afghan stock 397and live on the southern slopes of the Zawa Ghar Range, having for their neighbours, on the north-west the Turis, on the north and east the Orakzais, and on the south and south-west the Bangash. With every one of these the Zaimukhts are at feud. Their country is very fertile, and they own, too, a number of villages in the Kurram and Miranzai valleys in British territory. They are strong, well-built men with pleasing features, and can muster some 2300 armed men, who appear to possess good fighting qualities, but so far none of the tribesmen have taken service either in the Indian Army or in the local militia. They are all Sunni in religion and Samil in politics.
The Zaimukht Tribe
The country of the Zaimukhts may be described as a triangle, with the Zawa Ghar Range as its base, and the village of Thal as the apex; this includes a tract of country on its western side, occupied by the Alisherzai Orakzais. The northern range rises to a height of over 9000 feet above the village of Zawo, and from 7000 to 8000 feet elsewhere. The crest is in some parts covered with pine forests, in others it is bare of trees. From this main range several streams run southward between precipitous and rocky spurs whose sides are quite inaccessible; from the crests, here and there, rise steep, craggy peaks, which render the ridges also very difficult, if not impracticable. Among these glens lie many hamlets of small size, the village of Zawo being composed of several hamlets. This village was considered the chief stronghold of the Zaimukhts, and, from its position, impregnable, 398nestling close under the mountain range, and from the south only approachable up a ravine several miles in length, hemmed in by precipitous spurs rising to 8000 feet in elevation. The spurs of the Zawa Ghar Range are steep and rugged for about six to seven miles; as they run southward they fall away, and form a succession of small plateaux, intersected by ravines, 4000 to 5000 feet in elevation. Across these runs the route from Torawari, in Upper Miranzai, to Balish Khel, near the junction of the Kharmana River with the Kurram—a route formerly used by kafilas. The drainage divides into three parts—one running westward into the Kharmana and Kurram, near Balish Khel and Sadda; a second, collecting below Chinarak, forms the Sangroba, which falls into the Kurram near Thal; while the remainder runs eastward into the Ishkali which drains into the Kurram River. Dividing these are two passes at the villages of Manatu (5200 feet) and Urmegi (4300 feet), which also form the connecting links between the Zawa Ghar hill, and a second series of hills, that rise abruptly from 4000 feet to 8000 feet in two groups—one round the peak of Dingsar west of the Sangroba, the other round Dondo Ghar, east of that stream. The crests and spurs of these two groups are rugged, rocky and almost treeless. Amongst them lie several secluded glens, in which are other hamlets of the Zaimukhts, very difficult of access. The country is, as a rule, devoid of timber trees; water is plentiful; the soil is fertile and there are large numbers of cattle, sheep, goats and poultry.
399The tribe is divided into two main branches, each at bitter feud with the other:
1.
The Mamuzai or Western Zaimukhts.
2.
The Khoidad Khel or Eastern Zaimukhts.
Expedition of 1879
In the early days of the annexation of Miranzai the Zaimukhts gave little trouble to the Indian Government, but in the year 1855 they assumed a hostile attitude, and, among other acts of hostility, they took part in the affair near Darsamand (see Turis). From 1856 to 1878 the Zaimukhts kept quiet. The outbreak of the second Afghan war, and the long British line of communications through Miranzai and Kurram, provided an opportunity of raiding which the Zaimukhts found it impossible to resist. From December 1878, to August of the year following, the Zaimukhts, chiefly of the Khoidad Khel clan of the tribe, committed a number of offences, cutting off grazing pack animals, kidnapping British subjects, raiding the post, culminating in the murder of two British officers passing along the road. Besides these, there were also a number of petty thefts and such offences as cutting the telegraph wire; and in October 1879, the bill for damages against the tribe amounting to Rs. 25,000, a force under Brigadier-General Tytler, V.C., C.B., was ordered into the Zaimukht country. The objects of the expedition were:
1. To punish the tribe.
2. To punish, if convenient and desirable, the Lashkarzai Orakzais, who had equally been guilty of misbehaviour.
4003. To secure a right-of-way through the Zaimukht country, between Torawari and Balish Khel.
4. To secure the safety of communications on the Thal-Kurram road.
The expedition was delayed owing to the renewal of active operations in Afghanistan, consequent upon the murder at Kabul of Sir Louis Cavagnari and the members of his Mission, and it was not until the end of November that General Tytler was able to commence operations. In the interval, however, the tribesmen had continued their raids upon a larger scale than before, 3000 of the Lashkarzai Orakzais having concentrated for that purpose at Balish Khel, and a mixed force of Zaimukhts and Orakzais, in numbers about 1000, having assembled close to the post at Chupri in the Kurram Valley. Both these hostile concentrations were dispersed by small British columns collected on the spot, and which suffered but small loss.
While General Tytler was pushing on his preparations, several reconnaissances were made into Zaimukht country from Balish Khel, where the headquarters of the expedition was established on the 28th November. A party, numbering 500 infantry and two mountain guns, under Colonel J. J. H. Gordon, C.B., 29th Punjab Infantry, ascended the Drabzai Mountain, 7300 feet high, seven miles from Balish Khel, and commanding the whole southern Alisherzai (Lashkarzai Orakzai) Valley, with the passes leading to the northern Alisherzai and Massuzai country.
Lieutenant-Colonel R. C. Low, 13th Bengal Lancers, 401taking with him 400 infantry, 100 cavalry and two mountain guns, passed round the foot of the Drabzai Mountain, through Tindoh, as far as the entrance to the Krumb defile.
400 infantry, 50 cavalry and two mountain guns under Lieutenant-Colonel R. G. Rogers, C.B., 20th Punjab Infantry, explored the Tatang defile and the Abasikor Pass, the latter about thirteen miles from camp and 7700 feet in height. A mile beyond Tatang village, the road enters the Tatang defile, narrow, about forty or fifty yards long, and with precipitous, rocky sides overhanging the roadway. The road was rough and difficult for any but lightly laden baggage animals. From the crest of the pass a good view was obtained of the Massuzai (Orakzai) Valley.
A small party of the 13th Bengal Lancers, under Major C. R. Pennington, reconnoitred the country in the direction of the old Kafila road from Durani to Gawakki, which was found to be fairly good, and was consequently selected as that by which the main force should advance. The party under Colonel Rogers was the only one of the four which experienced any, and that but an altogether insignificant, opposition.
General Tytler’s Operations
On the 8th December, Brigadier-General Tytler moved to Gawakki, in the Zaimukht country, with the undermentioned force:
Total strength.
1–8th Royal Artillery, four guns (screw), 195
No. 1 Kohat Mountain Battery, two guns, 78
2nd Battalion 8th Regiment, 41
40285th Regiment, 733
1st Bengal Cavalry, 57
13th Bengal Cavalry, 155
18th Bengal Cavalry, 55
8th Company Sappers and Miners, 57
13th Native Infantry, 323
4th Punjab Infantry, 557
20th Punjab Native Infantry, 399
29th Punjab Native Infantry, 568
During the next ten days the country was thoroughly explored, and every village of any importance was visited. On the 9th, Manatu was reached without opposition, and from here three columns were despatched into the Wattizai Valley, the inhabitants of which had been largely implicated in the offences on the Thal-Kurram road, and there, in spite of some opposition, the villages of Kandali and Katokomela were burnt to the ground; at the same time some other villages in this valley were attacked from Kurram by a party of Turi levies and were also destroyed. The Wattizai Valley is about six miles long, well cultivated and watered. On the 12th the column marched five miles to Chinarak, distant about eight miles from the stronghold of Zawo, the objective of the expedition. Chinarak is situated on a fairly open and level plateau, surrounded by terraced fields, through which ran numerous water channels, and was almost at the foot of the defile leading to Zawo. At Chinarak the three main routes into the Zaimukht country converge, viz. from Balish Khel, from Torawari, 403and from Thal by the Sangroba defile, and it may therefore be looked upon as the most important strategical point of the whole valley.
Advance on Zawo
On the 13th, the force, less a small party remaining to guard the camp at Chinarak, moved out to attack Zawo; to this fastness there are three approaches—one by a difficult ravine about seven miles long and ten feet wide, one to the left over a steep spur on the west of the ravine, one to the right over high hills west of the valley of Surmai. The plan adopted was to hold the commanding ground on the right, while the main advance was made ............