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 Kurram 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 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.”