The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1895-04-22
OVER SHANDAR PASS
THE BRITISH SOLDIERS SCALE THE
SNOW-CLAD HINDOO KOOSH.
Many of the Men FrOst-Bitten and
Stricken with SnOw-Blindness-The
wild Career of Umra Khan.

Calcutta Letter in Philadelphia Telegraph.
Advices from Chitral says that Colonel
Kelly, with five hundred men from Gilgit,
succeeded on April in crossing Shandar
Pass, which is twelve thousand feet above
the sea level. Many of the men were FROST
bitten and stricken with snow-blindness.
The party are now within sixty miles OF
Chitral.
1t is reported that serious detection ex-
lists among the followers of Umra Khan.
many of whom are deserving.
Kafiristan, the general name of the re-
gion in which England is carrying on it's
current little war;" lies on the southern
slopes of the Hindoo Koosh, to the east of
Cabu1 the Afghan capital, and south of the
noted Pampoo, or Root of the World"
The whole district is nominally a part of
Afghanistan, but has long maintained a
troublous independence. 1t was the home
of the great Akhoond of Swat whose sway
was perhaps more absolute than that of
any other ruler the region has ever had.
The tribesmen there are the bravest and
most warlike of all Central Asia, and
they are all afield to meet and fight the
invading Englishmen. The wild fanatics
of Swat number at least ten thousand fight
ing men. Then there are the powerful
and numerous Yusufzai, said to number
5000 people, and to be able to bring 1900
thousand fighting men, and out of these
Umra Khan had formed. at the beginning
of the present troubles, a trained force,
armed with rifles, of forty thousand men.
Another tribe which has long possessed
a reputation for turbulence and antipathy
to the English. is the Utman Khel. oc-
cupying a district west of Swat and north
sand fighting men into the field; and again
beyond them are the Momands, mastering
believed that no Members of these ' TRIES
have taken part in the hostilities, or will
be led to do So
sTRANGEsADvENTUR
Umra, the Khan of Jandol the repulsion
of whose invasion of Chitral is the immedi-
ate object of the British expedition under
Sir Robert Low. is one OF the most impor-
tant of the chiefs on the Indian frontier
His life has been during the last fourteen
or fifteen years succession Of adventures
and hair-breadth escapes which have
gained for him a unique reputation for
courage and craft among the fierce and
lawless clans of Yaghistan. His exact age
is doubtful, but he was probably born about
the year 1860. He was the younger son
of the hereditary Khan of Jando of Barwa,
one of the four divisions of Bajaur. His
father, Aman Khan, died in 1879. and was
succeeded by his eldest son, whereupon
Unara Khan deemed it prudent to seek
some time with kinsman in the neigh
borhood of Peshawur, but the spirit OF ad-
venture led him to visit Bagdad, whence
he went pilgrimage to Mecca.
While there he .dreamt that he was to be
a great chief in his native country, and
he returned to Peshawuf with the intention
OF realizing what he considered his des-
tiny. AS he was only an individual without
complish his object by some act of per-
sonal daring. He reached Peshawur in
rife and and considerable amanttv 81 snder
munition. With this weapon he FASTENED
across the frontier to Jandol and succeed
An opportunity soon presented itself to
shoot his unsuspecting brother, the chief.
to avenge his death he shot down several
of them. parley tnen ensued, and on
the intervention of his mother. the widow
chief in the place of his brother whom he
had slain. Having thus acquired power
in an orthodox and $, lg manner. Umra
Khan proceeded to consolidate and ex-
HIS first act was to obtain some more of
in his own hands. and the thieves of the
border learned that they would find him a
steal from the Anglo-Indian army. In this
manner he soon possessed forty Sniders and
of eighty mounted men, which Constituted
the only cavalry throughout Yaghfstan He
continued to add to the number ny Of bis force:
at the head Of g considerable army So
Sharff, Khan of Dir. another OF the d.
visions of Bajaur by his success and the
evidence Of his energy that he voluntarily
surrendered several Of the villages on the
Panjkora river; but this did not satisfy the
ruler Of Jandol, who, In alliance with Mar,
Gul. the son of Akhoond Of Swat. atfacked
and defeated Mohamed Sharif He -fhen
turned on his ally and inflicted several hlI-
the greater because Milan Gul was assisfed
by the famous Mushk-i-AIim OF Ghuxni.
Umra Khan also added to HIS power Nv
marriage. He married. first. the sister 81
the Dir chieftaiu, and then dauNhfar ~
the famous Nehfar Of Chitral ANA null