Dargai
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Dargai is the name of a mountain peak and a frontier train station in north-west Pakistan. The mountain peak is situated on the Samana Range, and the Kohat border, and is famous for the stand made there by the Afridis and Orakzai in the Tirah Campaign. Dargai station is situated on the Peshawar border, and is the terminus of the frontier railway running from Nowshera to the Malakand Pass. A hydroelectric powerplant of 81MW capacity is currently under construction in Dargaii.
[edit] References
- This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.
Pushing into the Tirah the British soon came to a point at Dargai where the enemy was entrenched on on the heights commanding an important mountain pass. Now armed with superior Long Magazine Lee-Enfield rifles (the bolt-action "Long Tom" later used in the Boer War), several British Regiments had already been repelled in trying to carry the Heights, when it was the turn of the Gordon Highlanders to try. After their Colonel announced "you will take the heights", the Gordon Highlanders heroically accomplished the deed in 30 minutes.
The event was indelibly impressed on the popular conscience of the time by the deeds of one Piper Findlater. Playing "The Haughs of Cromdale", the Regimental "onset", at the front of the charge Piper Findlater was twice shot, and his pipes were partially shot away also. But he continued playing until losing consciousness.
