In December 1874, the bandmaster[113] of the 72nd Highlanders, stationed at Peshawar, was carried off by some Zakha Khel raiders and taken to the Khyber, being subsequently released uninjured; and during the operations against the Jawakis in 1877–78 the Zakha Khels sent to their aid a contingent of from 300–400 men, who fired on some British troops in the Kohat Pass and then turned back.
_Expedition against the Zakha Khels of the Bazar Valley, December 1878._—From the very commencement of the second Afghan war in 1878, the Afridis of the Khyber Pass began to give trouble. At the end of November a signalling party on the Shagai Heights, east of Ali Musjid in the Khyber, was attacked by some Kuki Khels from the village of Kadam, two men being killed and one wounded, but for this outrage punishment was inflicted by the tribal jirgah. Annoyance did not, however, cease; our communications in the Khyber were continually harassed, and the camp at Ali Musjid was fired into regularly every night, the culprits belonging chiefly to the Zakha Khel clan. One or two small raids upon tribal villages proving ineffectual, a punitive expedition into the Bazar Valley was decided upon, the troops composing it being drawn from the 2nd Division of the Peshawar Valley Field Force, the headquarters of which were then at Jamrud, and from the 2nd Brigade of the 1st Division then at Dakka. The following composed the two columns:
41 bayonets, 8th Company Bengal Sappers and Miners.
263 bayonets, 27th Punjab Native Infantry.
The Jamrud column, starting at 5 p.m. on the 19th December, and moving by Chora, a village inhabited by friendly Malikdin Khels, reached Walai in the Bazar Valley by midday on the 20th, and from here communication was established with the Dakka column, which had then reached the Sisobi Pass[114]—about three miles to the east—and expected to effect a junction with the Jamrud Column next day.
On the 21st the Jamrud Column marched to China, and visited every village of any importance in the valley, destroying all the towers, returning that night to Walai, and withdrawing thence unopposed to Ali Musjid on the 22nd.
The Dakka troops destroyed the towers in the vicinity of their bivouac, marching later to Nikai, which was also burnt. It being then too late to arrive at the Sisobi Pass on the return march before nightfall, the General (Tytler) halted, owing to difficulties as to water, in the Thabai Pass, with the intention of retiring on Dakka by this route. During the night the tribesmen assembled in strength about the camp, and when the march was resumed at daybreak it was seen that the enemy meant disputing every foot of it. The Afridis notoriously attack the baggage guard in preference to any other part of a force, and it was therefore determined to change the usual order of march. Orders were consequently issued for each corps to take its own baggage with it; the artillery and sappers, being most encumbered with mules, followed close to the advanced guard; while a very strong rearguard was left behind, which, being wholly relieved from the charge of baggage, was able to resist the pressure from the rear.