Siege of Malakand

01The rising

After 1895 the British kept troops on the Malakand to guard the road to Chitral, and the Swat valley tribes resented them. In July 1897 Saidullah, a preacher the British called the Mad Fakir or Mad Mullah, went through the villages announcing that the foreigners would be swept away. The attack came that same month with little warning. The camps on the pass were held by Sikh, Punjabi and Pathan sepoys of the Indian Army, with a few British officers; the 24th, 31st and 45th Sikhs did much of the fighting.

02Chakdara and the relief

At Malakand the attacks came mostly at night and were beaten off at close quarters. Ten miles away, the fort at Chakdara on the Swat river was held by a small garrison of the 45th Sikhs and the 11th Bengal Lancers, cut off and attacked repeatedly. Bindon Blood took command of the relief on 1 August, broke through to Chakdara on 2 August and then carried the war into the valleys. Winston Churchill rode with the field force as a correspondent and wrote his first book about it.