Khyber Pakhtunkhwa

“ KHYBER PASS AFRIDIS. From the year 1857 onwards the Khyber Pass Afridis have given the Punjab Government a good deal of trouble, and it has been necessary to carry out many raids and expeditions against one or other of the clans, and, at times, against all of them. Just before the outbreak of the Mutiny, when the Amir Dost Muhammad was encamped at Jamrud after his interview with Sir John Lawrence, a party of Kuki Khels fired upon some British officers near the mouth of the Khyber, and mortally wounded one of them. ”

“ The Khyber tribes, having understood and appreciated the Treaty of peace made by Your Highness with the British Government in May last, have unanimously agreed to assist the troops from Peshawar in every way, and are now eager to keep the road through the Khyber safe, and to place all their transport animals at the disposal of the British Commander, who will thus be enabled to concentrate his force rapidly at Kabul. ”

“ No man could tell how soon after the commencement of his invasion that necessity might arise; it was a prime raison d'être of the Khyber force to be in a position to give him the hand when he should intimate a need for support. Yet again, its presence in the passes dominantly thrusting forward, would have the effect of retaining the eastern tribes within their own borders, and hindering them from joining an offensive combination against the little force with which Roberts was to strike at Cabul. But delay on delay marked the mobilisation and advance of the troops operating in the Khyber line. ”

“ My reply was, and is, that there are no arsenals or depots near these passes to be protected, as at Quetta and Rawul Pindi; that we should not be likely to use them for an army moving into Afghanistan; that, although small parties of the enemy might come by them, the main body of a force operating towards India is bound to advance by the Khyber, for the reason that it would debouch directly on highly cultivated country and good roads leading to all the great cities of the Punjab ”

“ For the Khyber has been evacuated chiefly because of its unhealthiness in the summer, and on account of its proximity to our frontier it could with ease be reoccupied. While the Kuram has also several disadvantages as follows: many parts of it which would have to be occupied are unhealthy; there is no prospect of a railway to it for some time; the Shuturgarden is closed for three months in the winter, so that an advance at that time is almost impossible, and the distance to Cabul from Pawil Pindi is longer by this route than it is by the Khyber. ”

“ When, in September 1880, northern Afghanistan was finally evacuated by our troops, the Indian Government, recognising the undesirability of maintaining any regular force in the Khyber, expressed a wish to hand the pass over entirely to the independent charge of the neighbouring clans, provided some wholly satisfactory arrangement could be come to for keeping the road open, and for safeguarding the caravans passing to and fro between Afghanistan and India. ”

“ In 1878 some of the clans took sides with us, and some with the Amir, necessitating a couple of expeditions into the Bazar Valley,” and during the two phases of the campaign not less than 15,000 fighting men were required to keep open our communications with India by the Khyber route, despite the arrangement which had been come to with the clans bordering on the Khyber, and which will now be described. ”

“ Their neighbours on the west are the Shilmanis, on the north the Tarakzai Mohmands, and on the south the Kuki Khel Afridis, with whom, as well as with other Afridis, they are at feud. They have other settlements at Sapri in the Mohmand Hills, in the Sisobi 225Glen, on the western slopes of the Pandperi Range, and along the banks of the Kunar River. Those of the clan who are settled about the Khyber go in the summer to Kambela, which lies below Mutlani Sar to the west. The Khyber Mullagoris are very united, have a good reputation for courage, and enlist freely in the Khyber Rifles. ”

“ Determined to be Kings of Kafiristan, Carnehan and Dravot started probably from the capital of the Punjab, Lahore, where the newspaper office seems to have been. Ten miles west of Peshawar they entered the famous Khaiber (or Khyber) Pass, a region which Kipling describes more at length in "The Man Who Was," "The Drums of the Fore and Aft," "The Lost Legion," "Love o' Women," "Wee Willie Winkie," and "With the Main Guard." No country in Asia is less known to civilization than Kafiristan. The Mohammedan traders say that it is the most attractive part of Afghanistan. ”

“ The same day Brigadier-General Macpherson left Kabul with a brigade of about 1,800 men and four guns to join hands with the troops which I had lately heard were advancing from the Khyber, and had reached Gandamak. I joined Macpherson the following morning at Butkhak, about eleven miles from Kabul, where our first post towards the Khyber had already been established. It was very important that our communication with India should be by a route good enough for wheeled carriages ”

“ There is also no doubt, that by holding the Khyber Pass and the Shuturgarden we should command all the influence we required with the ruler of Cabul. Thus much for the annexation plan.
The second scheme is, that we should settle some chief or chiefs in Afghanistan as securely as possible, and ourselves retire behind the "scientific frontier," with or without Candahar. The scientific frontier, as it is called, is a line of country, roughly described as, extending from the Khyber to Quetta, including the Khyber and Michni passes, the Kuram, Sibi, and Pishin. ”

“ Pursuing the main road from Peshawar to Kabul, the fort of Jamrud, which commands the British end of the Khyber Pass, lies some 11 m. W. of Peshawar. The road leads through a barren stony plain, cut up by water-courses and infested by all the worst cut-throats in the Peshawar district. Some three miles beyond Jamrud the road enters the mountains at an opening called Shadi Bagiar, and here the Khyber proper begins. ”

“ The mountains and valleys of the Khyber range and of the other Indian frontier mountains are inhabited by these semi-independent Afghans called, collectively, Pathans or Pukhtana. There are many learned and careful men among the Government frontier officers who are at present investigating the origin and descent of the Pathan tribes. ”

“ Between this agency and the Khyber Pass lie the Mohmand hills, a rough country with but little cultivation, under the political control of Peshawar. West and south-west of the Khyber again is the country of the Afridis and the Orakzais. ”

“ They reached the Khyber famished and were fed at Ali Masjid Fort, after King had given a certain password and had whispered to the officer commanding. But he did not change into European clothes yet, and none of his following suspected him of being an Englishman.
"A Rangar on a black mare has gone down the pass ahead of you in a hurry," they told him at Ali Masjid. "He had two men with him and food enough. ”

“ The Kabul River breaks through this northern spur of the Safed Koh; and in breaking through it is forced to the northward in a curved channel or trough, deeply sunk in the mountains between terrific cliffs and precipices, where its narrow waterway affords no foothold to man or beast for many miles. To reach the Kabul River within Afghan territory it is necessary to pass over this water-divide; and the Khyber stream, flowing down from the pass at Landi Kotal to a point in the plains opposite Jamrud, 9 m. W. of Peshawar, affords the opportunity. ”

“ Sir William Lockhart returned to Jamrud, fresh transport was distributed among the troops, and one of the brigades of the Second Division made a short advance towards the Bara Valley. The effect upon the Zakha Khels was immediate. By the 3rd April all the clans had definitely submitted and given hostages for fines still due; hostilities then ceased and demobilisation commenced, but for some months regular troops were retained in occupation of the Khyber posts. ”

“ The Gomal is the most important pass between the Khyber and the Bolan. It gives access to the very centre of Afghanistan from India. It is the regular highway for thousands of trading and fighting people who bring their Kafilas yearly to India.... From Wana we not only dominate the southern Waziri valleys, but we round off the line of frontier outposts 424which hold all the wild people of the Suleiman mountains in check from Quetta to Waziristan. It secures the end of the chain, and can itself be supported and fed either from India by the Gomal Pass, or from Quetta by the Zhob Valley. ”

“ As to the measures to be taken effectually to coerce them, Oliver, writing twenty-two years ago, said that “strong as are the natural positions they hold among the spurs and defiles of the Safed Koh and the bare, rugged, inhospitable ranges of the Khyber; difficult of approach the passes which might have to be forced, and unanimous as the clans may be to defend them at the signal of a common danger, the people are so 265dependent on the plains, their position—secure though it may sound—is really their weakest point, and makes it easy to shut them up in their own hills. ”

“ The British Government will retain in its own hands the control of the Khyber and Michni Passes, which lie between the Peshawar and Jelalabad districts, and of all relations with the independent tribes of the territory directly connected with these passes. ”

“ He obtained a remarkable influence over the hill tribes, due in part no doubt to his Afghan blood. He raised the Khyber rifles from among these tribes, a force which for many years kept the pass tranquil. His camp became the rendezvous of mutually hostile tribesmen, who carefully refrained from hostilities so long as they remained within its precincts. He was accustomed to travel with no weapon but a walking-stick, and everywhere met with demonstrations of attachment. ”

“ The Malikdin Khel is the Khan Khel or head clan of the Afridis, and is closely connected with the Kambar Khel, their settlements in Maidan, Chora and Kajurai lying together. In Maidan they occupy the central and northern portion of the valley—Bagh, the recognised meeting place of the Afridi Jirgahs, “where the Khyber raid and Afridi rebellion of 1897–98 were planned, and where fanaticism, 270intrigue and sedition have always been hot-bedded and nourished,” being in their country. The Malikdin Khels number some 6000 fighting men, and are Samil in politics. ”

“ After the Afghans the dominant people are the Pukhtun or Pathans, represented by a variety of tribes, many of whom are recognised as being of Indian origin. They inhabit the hilly regions along the immediate British frontier. The Afridi Jowaki and Orakzai clans hold the highlands immediately south of the Khyber and Peshawar, the Turis of the Kurram, the Dawaris of Tochi and the Waziris of Waziristan filling up the intervening Pathan hills north of the Gomul. In the Kohat district the Khattak and Bangash clans are Pathan so that Pathans are found on both sides of the border. ”

“ In the interior the mountains sometimes reach the height of 15,000 feet. Great part of the frontier towards India consists of the Suleiman range, 12,000 feet high. There are numerous practicable avenues of communication between Afghanistan and India, among the most extensively used being the famous Khyber Pass, by which the River Kabul enters the Punjab ”

“ AFREDEEDS AT THE KHYBER PASS. Page 329.
All this fired my desire to see Afghanistan. The journey from Rawal Pindi to Peshawar was extremely trying. The weather was vivid, the topography of the country was flat, and it was unrelieved by architecture of any interest. We stopped a few days at Campbellpore, the most uninteresting cantonment in India, in spite of the elephants who salute and salaam, and in spite of the splendid regimental drag. I shall remember the kindness of the “Elephant Battery” when I have forgotten Campbellpore ”

“ Colonel Waterfield and Major Warburton called for us, and we proceeded in gharries and char-à-banc to the Jamrud Fort and entrance to Khyber Pass. Saw 1st Bengal Cavalry and Skinner's Horse exercising under Colonel Chapman. Inspected portion of the force of 650 infantry and 50 cavalry maintained for the18 protection of travellers through the Khyber. Tuesday and Friday are the caravan days each week. Strong escort for caravans necessary, owing to intermittent fighting between tribes on either side of pass. ”

“ Are the Khyberis tributary to us or we to them, because we pay them a tribute to let our merchants travel through their Pass? Have we never ourselves come, first as suppliants, then as merchants, then as guests, then as advisers, then as protectors, and, finally, as conquerors?
The procedure of Afghanistan, of Chitrál, of Kashmir, and of our own is very much alike and so are the several radii of influence of the various factors in “the question.” We have our fringe of independent frontier tribes with whom we flirt, or wage war, as suits the convenience of the moment. ”

“ The Pakistani Army is fighting their own Taliban for the future of the nation. It is not clear if Pakistan will regress to fundamentalism or become a modern, unified state. There is little question that Pakistan offers de facto secure sanctuary in both Baluchistan and the FATA regions to the Quetta Shura and the Hekmatyar Taliban factions. 4.GENERAL: Afghanistan and her 28 million people are trying to build the basic elements of a civil and Islamic society while traumatized by 35 years of cruel violence and chaos. The country is a giant and beautiful land of great contrasts. ”