HAZARA. 1888.
Reading edition
The operations against the Thibetans were not finished, when an expedition was despatched against the fierce and warlike tribe of the Azokais, inhabiting the Black Mountain, a range lying to the north of Hazara, between the Indus and Cashmere. The tribesmen had been severely punished for their raids, and their villages burnt, by a force commanded by General Sir Thomas Wilde, in October, 1868,[153] which reduced them to sue for peace, and to give hostages for their good behaviour in the future. For many years they remained quiet, but on June 18th., 1888, a body of them attacked a surveying party under Major Battye and Captain Urmston, and massacred the two officers with several of their followers. To chastise the tribe for this outrage, the Hazara, or Black Mountain Field Force, comprising the 15th. Bengal Cavalry, a detachment of Royal Artillery, and a Hazara Mountain Battery, 5th. Northumberland Fusiliers, 18th. Royal Irish, 12th. Suffolk, 107th. Sussex, 78th. Highlanders, 2nd., 3rd., 14th., and 45th. Sikhs, 5th. Goorkhas, 4th., 24th., and 29th. Punjaub Infantry, 34th. Pioneers, and 40th. Bengal Native Infantry, about 8000 men, all told, commanded by Major-General McQueen, and Brigadier-Generals Channer, V.C., and Galbraith, made an entrance into the enemy’s country on October 3rd. Two days afterwards General McQueen encountered and defeated the mountaineers near Surmulbutspur, with the loss of Captain Beley, killed, and Colonel Crookshank, who died of wounds received in the action. On November 2nd., a column under General Channer, principally composed of the Northumberland Fusiliers and Khyberees, assaulted and carried the Gorapher Peak, 9,500 feet above the level of the sea, the most elevated position ever carried by British troops, with the loss of one man killed and one wounded. Convinced of the uselessness of further resistance, on November 5th., the tribesmen unconditionally submitted, and the troops commenced their return march to Oghi.
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