Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1917-01-04
MOHMANDS ARE
TROUBLESOME
British Troops Round Up Tur-
bulent Tribes For Inter
ment

Peshawar, Northwest Frontier Prov
ince, India, November IL Correspond
ence of the Associated Press) The
Mohmands, nominally Independent
and ever turbulent tribe, whose coun-
try borders on administered British
territory in this region. having made
themselves generally Objectionable dur
ing the last few months, have come in
for considerable attention at the hands
or the British recently. The latest
phase of the punishment being meted
out occurred to-day, when thousands
of troops engaged i'll drive which
resulted in the rounding up for intern
ment of 400 Mohmands who were scat
tered in villages just inside the pro-
vincial domain.
The Mohmands have always been
among the most troublesome of the
tribesmen living in the independent
territory between the northwest from
tier province and Afghanistan. A year
ago they made raids and committed
murders in the Peshawar district. AS
penalty they were forbidden to enter
the province to trade. Angered by
this, they began to threaten war, and
several fights actually did take place.
At this time there were a number of
Mohmands living in British territory
After the declaration of hostilities by
their brothers at home most of these
government guests were sent across
the border. Sir George Roos-Keppel.
chief commissioner for the northwest
frontier province, then put up along
the Mohmand border line of barbed
wire entanglements. intersected with
strongly guarded blockhouses. The
government of India at the same time
imported number of aeroplanes, the
first ever seen in this part of the world.
and manned them with experienced
aviators fresh from the western the
ater of war.
Driven Into Trap
FOR time these new methods of
warfare puzzled and worried the Moh-
mands and they kept to their hills, but
recently they became more bold, and
under cover of night succeeded in cut
ing the barbed wire at one or two
places and committing small thefts.
Then 1T was that Sir George Roos-
keppel played his trump card by or
dering the installation of q live wire,
which has been slung along the whole
Mohmands frontier, distance of sew
enteen miles. The fact that this wire
carries 4,500 volts and means instant
death to anyone touching it has be-
come known to the tribesmen, and at
present they are contcnting themselves
with holding powwows in the noun
tains and making threats.
To-day's drive is said to be UNIQUE
to this section of the world. "Ba-
ramta" is the name the natives give it,
this being Hindustani for "reprisal.' p
1t was the privilege of a correspndent
or the Associated Press to ride with
the troops and witness this unusual
hunt, which was for the purpose of
rounding all Mohmands of a fighting
age who had not previously been
driven across the border. The ba-
ramta was divided into two sections,
one being in the narrow angle formed
by two branches of the Kabul river
and the other between one of these
branches and the barbed wire en-
tanglement which forms a junction
with the river at the point where It
divides. The rivers and the wire thus
made two V-shaped traps, toward the
points of which the drive was CON
Quoted, nothing in it's path beingsable
to escape, for the Mohmands could
neither swim the river nor force their
way through the guarded barbed wire.
Several battalions of infantry and a
large number OF cavalry took part in
the hunt, which began about ten miles
below the apex of the traps. A solid
line of troops was thrown across,
forming a triangle. whose base ever
moved forward, gathering everything
in its way.
The country across which the troops
had to proceed is level, but broken by
hundreds OF irrigation bitches and