HUNTING THE RAIDERS

Evening Star, Issue 18332, 20 July 1923, Page 2

HUNTING THE RAIDERS

FRONTIER TACTICS

SCOUTS OF THE AIR,

A Peshawar correspondent writes to the London. ‘ Times ’i

A Bristol fighter has been run out on to tha Peshawar aerodrome and the pilot is ready to take you along with him to Tank, whore he is going to join another squadron, one of whose machines failed to return from its last turn of escorting the Wana convoy. As you circle upwards from the aerodrome a wonderful panorama reveals itself. A ring of hills 150 miles in circumference surround a plain of surpassing richness, watered by five great rivers and innumerable irrigation canals. In the far background arc range upon range of gleaming snow mountains—the Sufaid Koh, the Hindu Kush, and the mountains of Chitral, Gilgit, and Kashmir; but what cliiefly concerns you are the gaunt black foothills that ring the plain. They are the homo of the raider. Hero and there among them you will sec a strip or patoli of green, but only enough fo point the contrast with the broad fields below you. So, as you turn southwards and Ihroughout the 200 miles' of your journey, you will have on your right baud a practically unbroken lino of these .dark, forbidden hills and below you a fertile plain. Those hills breed more than they can feed —and they breed them fierce. For more than a thousand years tho hillmen have descended on the plains and seized portions of them for their habitation, till, a bare hundred years ago, tho Sikhs, followed by tlie British, came and garrisoned Peshawar, Bannu, and many another fort to hold tho border, just as Carlisle, Chester, and Ludlow held our own home borders from tho hill raiders of old. British rule has reduced raiding from being the normal existence of tho hillman to being .an outlet for his exuberance or his anger. Moreover, to a very groat extent, tho real inliahitani of the hills has realised that raiding does not pay. A SORDID BUSINESS. Raiding to-day, except when it is part of the general hostility of a tribe at open was with the British Government, as Ims been tho case in Wazirislan for the last few years, Is the work of outlaws. Such men often have' no alternative to becoming raiders; they have got to pay their footing, with tho community that gives them refugej and they join up with the desperate characters of tho tribe—men who are deserters from Government service, or who have tjio price of blood upon their heads, and so are outlaws themselves. Raiding on this plane becomes a sordid business, stripped of much of its romance, though not of its risks, and thoso engaged in it tend to become more and more brutal and callous, till at last, with tho blood of women and children on their hands, they die fighting like cornered wild cats till tho last breath leaves their bodies.

I These desperate fights occur ■when, after I many a fruitless search and pursuit, a I stroke of luck enables the Government forces to intercept a raiding party before it can make good its escape to the hills with its booty of cash or bales of merchandise, cattle, or a fat moneylender to be held to ransom. Such a chance occurs but seldom, and the balance of success tends to remain with the raiders. The counter-raid is the more, effective weapon. Such an operation is exactly like a raid, but it is carried out from the plains to the hills, and is retributive and not provocative in character. Local military forces are employed, occasionally regular troops, but the frontier constabulary, enlisted ’from among men to whom raiding is bred in the bone, are the specialists in the game. The home of a raiding gang is located : I. while the tally of outrages for which they I are responsible is being verified, the post-1 tion is reconnoitred, cither from the air or: 'by means of spies or by some British

officer, who takes three days’'leave and a local ‘ shikari,” aiidl disappears from the club on a shooting trip. Thou begins the i laying of plans, m which secrecy is the most vital factor. .Ail sorts of devices are employed to ensure that the necessary concentration of forces shall not arouse sus picion. Orders are ostentatiously issuer for intercompany reliefs; a hitch occurs, and four companions which should hav' been relieving each other find' themselves by accident all at (ho same place ; or detachments are called in. for sports or c musketry competition. Then, laic in the evening, when all the men have had then dinners, motor lorries loom up in the darkness; there is a hurried mustering, issuing of ride?, ammunition, bombs, signalling equipment, and rations; the men bundle into the lorries and are covered over with tarpaulins—and 1 a convoy of ordnance stores leaves the Cantonment. THE PLAN 1 OE THE CAMPAIGN. Midnight finds the convoy unloading its “stores” at some secluded jumping-olf place near the border. By dawn hi teen or twenty miles have been covered silently and secretly on foot; half a dozen pickets have been put out in a circle round a village, which Is still invisible in the darkness, and the main body lies up under cover till there is light enough io work. When all is ready the village “mnlik” is sent for and told to surrender the “wanted” individual, ami. to comply with such terms as the oflicer commanding the counter-raid has been authorised to exact. Sometimes all goes well. Complete surprise and llio early morning awakening to find all avenues of escape closed quench the fighting spirit of the villagers, and they allow themselves to be collected in batches under guard, while search / is made for stolen property and. outlaws in hiding. When things take this course the raiders return triumphantly to their lorries in a. few hours with their captives and hostages, and raiding on that part of the border censes for a year or two.