Operations against the Marri and Khetran tribes (also known as the Marri Punitive Expedition) was the British name for a punitive expedition carried out against the Marri and Khetran tribes of Balochistan, British India between February and April 1918. The Marri rose against the British authorities around 18 February, encouraged by rumours that the British were short of manpower due to the First World War. British attempts at conciliation were repulsed and, on 20 February, a major attack was made by 1,000 – 3,000 Marri upon the British post at Gumbaz. This attack was repulsed by a much smaller British force that inflicted heavy losses upon the Marri. A subsequent withdrawal of British forces from Kohlu and its occupation by the Marri led the Khetrans to join the rising. The town of Barkhan was occupied by Marri-Khetran forces and raids were made upon villages in the Sibi and Loralai districts; railways in the area were also attacked.
The British assembled the Marri Field Force of British Army and British Indian Army troops under Major-General Richard Wapshare to combat the rising. Two columns under Brigadier-Generals T. H. Hardy and Philip Miles went on the offensive into territory occupied by the tribes. Miles inflicted a heavy defeat upon a Marri-Khetran force at Fort Munro on 15 March and then captured Barkhan, ending Khetran involvement in the rising. Hardy defeated a large Marri force at Hadb on 3 April and afterwards, assisted by bombing by the Royal Flying Corps, captured the Marri capital of Kahan. The Marri sardar Khair Bux Mari surrendered to the British on 8 April.
The campaign caused a significant reduction in tax revenue from the area and damage to private and government property. A council of elders was assembled after the campaign which recommended compensation payments be made by the Marri and the imprisonment of members of both tribes. The rising inspired rebellions by the Mengal and Gurgnari tribes, who killed their own sardars, and by the Musakhel, which was put down by part of the Marri Field Force.
Background
Balochistan, in modern Pakistan came under indirect British rule in 1839 through the Khan of Kalat. The 1876 Treaty of Kalat brought the province and its tribes under direct control as part of British India. The Marri tribe live in Marri-Bugti Country and are one of the most north-easterly of the Baloch peoples. Marri Country, at an elevation of , is mountainous and difficult to traverse with few passes; it is surrounded by the flatter land of the Sibi and Indus basins. Their hereditary leader was known as the sardar, though often referred to by the British as the Marri nawab; he was assisted by a number of chief men, also usually hereditary. The Marri-Bugti country was administered by the British from Sibi District.
The Marri were traditionally raiders and slavers, though these activities were somewhat curtailed under British rule. In 1840 the Marri had ambushed the communications lines of Sir John Keane's army fighting in the First Anglo-Afghan War; a subsequent punitive expedition against the Marri was repulsed with heavy British losses. The Marri supported the British in a war with the Bugti in 1845 but in the following decades again came into conflict with the British. British officers John Jacob and Robert Groves Sandeman did much work to keep the peace but in 1880 the Marri attacked British lines of communication during the Second Anglo-Afghan War. An expedition by British Brigadier-General Charles MacGregor, led to the submission of the Marri and the payment of fines, after which there was peace until the 1910s.
The Khetran tribe are of mixed Baloch and Pathan origin and their territory lies to the north of the Marri and their only other neighbours are Pathans. Their leader, the tomundar, was based at the capital Barkhan. Their lands consist of a series of fertile valleys. By the late 19th century they were closely linked with the Marris, Bugtis and Lagharis. The British authorities passed messages to the Khetrans via the Lagharis. They were described as a peaceful tribe in 1879, not noted for raiding. They sometimes came into conflict with the British for harbouring fugitives and accepting stolen property.