The Mohmand Expedition of 1908 was a British punitive expedition against Mohmand rebels in the British Raj.
Description of the Mohmands
Mohmand tribes
In 1908, the Mohmands were primarily divided into two main branches: the Independent Mohmands, who lived across the Administrative border, and those dwelling in and around Matanni and in the south-western corner of the Peshawar district. Mohmands of the Peshawar district had, however, long lost touch with those of the hills, and were in no way connected with the outbreak in the spring of 1908.
The trans-border Mohmands may be considered as having been subdivided into the following eight clans: Baezai, Khwaizai, Tarakzai, Halimzai, Utmanzai, Dawezai, Isa Khel and Burhan Khel. Of these, the last six, known as the assured clans—together with the Musa Khel section of the Baezai—were in receipt of allowances from the British Government, granted in lieu of those which, prior to the Durand agreement, certain of them had received from the Amirs of Kabul.
The Baezai and Khwaizai clans received no British allowances, and consider themselves subject to Afghan authority alone. They resided largely on the Afghan side of the Durand Line, which had, however, never yet been demarcated in Mohmand territory and was still a subject of dispute.
Mohmand fighting strength
The total fighting strength of the Mohmands was estimated in 1907 at 21,500 men with about 1,850 breech-loading rifles. Of the above, about 11,000 men and 750 rifles belonged to the Afghan clans.
Since then many more breech-loaders were known to have passed into the country—a result of the successful smuggling of firearms from Masqat in the Persian Gulf into Baluchistan—and thence to Afghanistan and the North-West Frontier. Naturally, however, this estimate gives us no true idea of what strength the Mohmands could actually put in the field. This can best be calculated from the numbers opposed to the British in the actions at Matta and Shabkadar on 24 April 1908, which were approximately as follows:
Mohmand country
Mohmand country proper—i.e., omitting the affiliated clans of Shilmanis and Mullagoris, who lived on the right bank of the Kabul river, and whose interests were entirely distinct from those of other Mohmands—was bounded, roughly, on the north by the Ambahar valley and Utman Khel country, on the east by the Swat river and Utman Khel country, on the south-east by the administrative border of the Peshawar district, and on the south by the Kabul river; to the west it extends up to about the longitude of the Kunar River in Afghanistan, and there were also some large Mohmand villages south of the Kabul river in Ningrahar.
The country (on the British side of the Durand line) thus enclosed was, with a few exceptions, exceedingly wild, rugged and desolate. The hills almost throughout were practically waterless, except, of course, during the autumn and winter rains, and the inhabitants depend largely for their water-supply on artificial tanks, which caught and store rainwater and surface drainage. That the soil was fertile, however, and only needs a sufficient rainfall to produced excellent crops, was evident from the fact that the expeditionary forced of 1908 found large areas covered with standing wheat and barley.
The principal valley in the country was the Bohai Dag, known in its lowered portion as the Danish kol. This valley ran roughly east and west right across the Mohmand country, from the Silala Sar to the Swat River, which it joined about 13 miles above Abazai, and had a total length of 40 miles and an elevation varying from 3,000 to 1,500 feet. The upper part of the valley was broad and opened, but for the last 10 miles of its course the hills closed in, and the valley becomes a narrowed rocky gorge.
No water was found by the British in the bed of the Nala much above Mulla Kalai, about 6 miles from its junction with the swat, either in the expedition of 1897 or in 1908. In its upper portion, the Bohai Dag was inhabited by the Baezai and Khwaizai clans, lowered down by the Halimzai and Isa Khel.
About 7 miles above its junction with the Swat river, the Bohai Dag, or Danish Kol as it was here called, was joined by the Yalch Dand Nala. This valley rose to the north of the Bedmanai passed under the name of the Mitai Nala, and flowed south and then east to join the Danish Kol. No water was found flowing above this junction either in the expedition of 1897 or that of 1908. At its head, it was inhabited by the Musa Khel section of the Baezai, and near its junction with the Danish Kol by the Halimzai and Utmanzai, while between the two, in a very opened portion of the valley, dwell the vassal clan of Safis.