The Reserve Brigade, under General Ramsay, reached Lundi Kotal on the 3rd May, while that under General Barrett marched to Ali Musjid; General Anderson remained at Shabkadar with his brigade in observation of the Mohmands.
On the night of the 2nd May repeated efforts had been made by the Khyber gathering (which appeared to be entirely composed of Afghans, no Afridis having joined it), to capture our post of Michni Kandao, which was ably defended by Subadar Tor Khan of the Khyber Rifles. Lundi Kotal was also fired into, and several attempts made to burn the serai, but these were all beaten off, although firing took place daily. On the 4th General Willcocks felt himself strong enough to attack, and moved out from Lundi Kotal in two columns against the enemy, who occupied the Shinwari villages about 4000 yards to the west. One column consisted of Ramsay’s infantry brigade, with the 80th Battery R.F.A. and the 28th Mountain Battery, while the other was under Colonel Roos-Keppel, and was composed of fifty dismounted men 19th Lancers, two companies 21st Punjabis, and 500 of the Khyber Rifles. The enemy were driven from their sangars and the shelter of the villages, and, having suffered severely, disappeared over the Afghan boundary. It being apparent that nothing further was to be apprehended on this part of the frontier, the troops left Lundi Kotal on the 7th, and were back in Peshawar on the 8th and 9th, having left behind two mountain guns at Lundi Kotal and the 54th Sikhs at Jamrud.
During the absence of the force all had remained quiet on the Mohmand-Peshawar border from Michni to Abazai, but there were signs of a general disinclination to send tribal representatives to a jirgah; and finally, on the 9th May—by which date the limit of time allowed had expired—news arrived of the refusal of some maliks to come in, and of the receipt of insulting messages from others. It was therefore decided, on the 10th May, to send troops into the Mohmand country, and the advance commenced accordingly on the 13th.
In the meantime cases of cholera had occurred among the troops, and certain changes became inevitable in the composition of the Mohmand Field Force. In the 1st Brigade the 22nd Punjabis replaced the 1st Battalion Northumberland Fusiliers; in the 2nd Brigade the 54th Sikhs replaced the Guides Infantry, relegated, with the 21st Punjabis, to the lines of communication beyond Shabkadar; while in the 3rd Brigade the 1st Battalion West Yorkshire Regiment and the 19th Punjabis replaced the Munster Fusiliers and the 22nd Punjabis.