Chitral Expedition and the siege of Chitral fort

01Murder and a shut gate

The old Mehtar Aman ul-Mulk died in 1892 and his sons fought over the throne. On 1 January 1895 the Mehtar Nizam ul-Mulk was murdered at the instigation of his brother Amir ul-Mulk, and Umra Khan of Jandol came over the Lowari pass with his men, joined by the claimant Sher Afzal. George Robertson, the British agent sent up from Gilgit, recognised the boy Shuja ul-Mulk as Mehtar. After a sharp fight outside on 3 March, in which Captain Baird was mortally wounded, Robertson’s party fell back into the fort.

02The siege and the relief

The fort was of timber and stone on the river bank, and the garrison was mostly Sikhs of the 14th Sikhs and men of the Kashmir Infantry. The besiegers tried fire against the walls and at the end a mine, which a sortie destroyed on 17 April. Colonel James Kelly with a few hundred men of the 32nd Pioneers and Kashmir troops crossed the Shandur pass in deep snow, dragging two mountain guns, and reached Chitral on 20 April. The main force under Sir Robert Low, coming through the Malakand, scattered Umra Khan’s men.