Hazara Expedition of 1888

Hazara Expedition of 1888
Date October 1888 – November 1888 Location Hazara (modern-day Pakistan) Result British victory
Belligerents
British Raj	the tribes of Kala Dhaka
Strength
9,416 British and Indian troops[1]	around 10,000[1]
Casualties and losses
2 officers 23 soldiers 54 wounded	around 400

The Hazara Expedition of 1888,^[2] also known as the Black Mountain Expedition^[3] or the First Hazara Expedition, was a military campaign by the British against the tribes of Kala Dhaka (then known as the Black Mountains of Hazara) in the Hazara region of what is now Pakistan.

On June 18, 1888 two British officers and four Gurkha soldiers were killed in an altercation between British reconnaissance patrols and antagonistic tribes. As a response, the Hazara Field Force was assembled and began its march on October 4, 1888, after an ultimatum had not been satisfied by the tribes by October 2, 1888.^[4] The first phase of the campaign ended with the Hassanzai and Akazai tribes requesting an armistice on October 19, 1888. The second phase of the campaign targeted the tribes that lived north of Black Mountain such as the Allaiwals. The campaign ended when the Allaiwal village of Pokal was occupied and destroyed by the British on November 2 and 3, 1888.^[4]

British and Indian Army forces who took part in the expedition received the India General Service Medal with the clasp Hazara 1888.^[5]

Concerns that the tribes were not honouring the agreements that ended the 1888 campaign led to a further two-month expedition by a Hazara Field Force in 1891. ^[6]

References