On the 1st August Colonel Meiklejohn made an attempt at the relief of Chakdara, but the start was rather delayed, and the enemy showed themselves in such strength that the orders had to be cancelled. On this date Major-General Sir Bindon Blood, having been appointed to command a newly organised Malakand Field Force, arrived in the position, and approved of a strong force moving out at daybreak on the 2nd to effect the relief of Chakdara. The relieving force, under Colonel Meiklejohn, was stoutly opposed all the way, but the determination of the enemy only made their losses the heavier, the cavalry getting among them with their lances and the Sikhs with the bayonet. As the force drew near, the enemy surrounding the fort began to withdraw, their retirement being hastened by a vigorous sortie by the garrison. The relieving column had five men killed and twenty-eight wounded, while the casualties of the Chakdara garrison only amounted to three killed and nine wounded during their six days’ close investment, standing continually to their posts by day and night.
That day the villages of Aladand and Thana were visited, no opposition being met with, and Colonel Meiklejohn’s column marched to and remained in camp at Amandara in preparation for the reconstitution of the field force.
Operations of the Malakand Field Force, 1897.—To punish all the attacks above described, the Government of India sanctioned the despatch of a force, to be known as the Malakand Field Force, to concentrate, the First Brigade at Amandara, the Second at Khar and Malakand, the Reserve at Rawal Pindi and Mardan.
By this time some idea could be formed of the extent of the rising and how far the neighbouring tribes were infected by the spirit of unrest which had been aroused. It was known that a division of the Bunerwals, the Utman Khels, the inhabitants of Lower Swat, and certain numbers of Upper Swatis had taken part in the attacks upon the Malakand position; not to mention the Dusha Khels, certain divisions of the Khwazozais, and other sub-divisions, whose names would only be worth repeating as showing how general was the rising among the local clans. But the tribes further north did not seem to have been infected with any excitement or restlessness; communication between Gilgit and Chitral was still open. The Indus-Kohistan, the Mohmand country, the Khyber, Kohat and Kurram, all then appeared to be undisturbed; the Nawab of Dir reported that the Bajauris had remained tranquil, as had also the tribes on the Peshawar border. The only disquieting frontier news to hand at this time was to the effect that a number of mullahs, with a following of fanatical tribesmen, had left Ningrahar and the neighbourhood of Jalalabad to join either the Hadda Mullah or the Mad Fakir. The bulk of the attacking force had been furnished by the men of Lower Swat, hitherto, and with some reason, despised as fighting men. Thus the Khan of Aladand, whose conduct had been exemplary since the Chitral Campaign, whose people were largely employed as levies, and who himself drew a subsidy from Government, was among those killed in one of the attacks. Thana lost nearly all its young men, and men of other villages, who for the last two years had regularly furnished supplies, turned out for this “Holy War” in obedience to the exhortations of the Mad Fakir.
The concentration of the troops composing the Malakand Field Force was completed on the 8th August; and already on the next day and on the 12th certain Ranizai and Khwazozai jirgahs came in to sue for peace, their submission being accepted on payment of heavy fines, surrender of arms, and promise of future good behaviour and non-molestation of the troops.
On the 16th Sir Bindon Blood, leaving his Reserve Brigade at Mardan and Rustam to observe the Buner passes, advanced by the left bank of the river towards Upper Swat, bivouacking at Thana, and sending forward to Landakai his cavalry, who reported that the enemy were holding the hills above the village in strength. The position at Landakai was naturally a very strong one, and was occupied by some 3000 tribesmen behind sangars on a steep rocky spur running down to the water’s edge from the mountains on the south. This spur commanded the approach by a gorge, the road through which only permitted of an advance in single file; but further to the west another ridge came down from a height overlooking the Landakai spur and ended at the village of Jalala. The few tribesmen holding Jalala were early dispossessed, and the ridge being then seized by the West Kent Regiment, it was occupied as an artillery position by a field and mountain battery, and a heavy fire was opened from here upon the Landakai spur.
The rest of the infantry, with another mountain battery, moved to the right along the rear of this position, and occupied a spur commanding the enemy’s left flank. The tribesmen, prevented from reinforcing this flank by the heavy infantry and gun fire from the Jalala spur, began to waver and then to fall back. Many escaped by the Morah Pass, and those who held on to the position were driven from their sangars by the advance of the whole of the infantry, who pursued them to Kota, the cavalry following as far up the valley as Abuwa, on the Barikot road, and doing considerable execution. Our losses this day were light—two killed and nine wounded. On the two following days the force moved on by Ghalegai to Mingaora, encountering no opposition, and finding the inhabitants ready enough to tender their submission and furnish supplies. From Mingaora, where the force remained some days, reconnaissances were sent out in all directions, the country was as far as possible disarmed, and the terms of submission were enforced. By the 22nd August jirgahs, representing all the Upper Swat clans, had agreed to unconditional surrender, and the force then commenced to withdraw, reaching Khar and the Malakand on the 27th.
While the Headquarters and the First Brigade had been operating in Upper Swat, the Second Brigade had remained at Khar to overawe the people of Lower Swat, pushing reconnaissances in all directions, the inhabitants remaining perfectly submissive. There had been some idea of employing this Brigade for the punishment of the Bunerwals and Utman Khels, implicated in the recent rising, but by this time the frontier generally was in a blaze, and it was decided that two of Sir Bindon’s brigades should be sent through Dir and Bajaur in order to co-operate with the Mohmand Field Force from Nawagai: these operations, in which the Second and Reserve (Third) Brigade were employed—the First Brigade remaining in occupation of Swat—will be found described in Chapter VII.
Since this year there has been no further outbreak of fanaticism and no other trouble in Swat, and the prosperity of the country has made very real progress.