106th Hazara Pioneers The 106th Hazara Pioneers was a pioneer infantry regiment of the British Indian Army . They were formed in 1904 at Quetta from Hazara refugees . They were disbanded in 1933 . Establishment . The first contact between the British and the Hazaras was just before the First Afghan War , when some Hazaras served in " Broadfoot ' s Sappers " ( British Scouts ) from 1839 – 1840 . A considerable number of Hazaras had come to India to work as labourers prior , particularly in heavy work such as quarrying . In 1903 – 1904 , however , due to high levels of persecution by the Afghans , large numbers of Hazaras refugees poured over the frontier . In 1904 , Lord Kitchener , who at that time was Commander - in - Chief in India , directed Major C . W . Jacob to raise a battalion of Hazara Pioneers . Prior to this , the only Hazaras in the Indian Army were those enlisted in the 124th and 126th Baluchistan Infantry , as well as a troop in the Guides Cavalry . The 106th Hazara Pioneers were raised at Quetta in 1904 by Major C . W . Jacob ; a nucleus was formed by drafts from the 124th Duchess of Connaught ' s Own Baluchistan Infantry and the 126th Baluchistan Infantry . The Battalion was composed of eight companies of Hazaras , and their permanent peace station was at Quetta . Their full dress uniform was drab with red facings . History . In 1918 the Hazaras of the 124th Duchess of Connaught ' s Own Baluchistan and the 126th Baluchistan Infantry were transferred to the 106th Hazara Pioneers , then assigned to active service in the Mesopotamia Campaign . Prior to this , the Guides Cavalry did not include Hazaras in their ranks . The 106th Hazara Pioneers were now the only unit in the Indian Army enlisting Hazaras nationals . There were two changes in the title of the regiment after the 1914 – 1918 war . The 106th Hazara Pioneers became 1st Battalion 4th Pioneers in 1922 and the " The Hazara Pioneers " in 1929 . As a result of the financial crisis in 1933 , all Pioneer Regiments in the Indian Army , including the Hazara Pioneers , were disbanded . Following the 1914 – 1918 war , it became increasingly difficult to recruit Hazaras from the Hazarajat ; more recruits had to be taken from the Hazaras colonies settled in the Mashhad area . These men , however , lacked many of the best qualities of the Hazaras enlisted directly from the Afghan highlands . The difficulty in obtaining more of the latter was due chiefly to the change in the attitude of the Afghans towards the Hazaras , who were no longer poorly treated and were now being freely enlisted in the Afghan Army . In addition , the Afghan government had requested the government of India to stop enlisting their subjects ( the Hazaras ) in the Indian Army . Field Marshal Sir Claud Jacob was colonel of the regiment from 1916 until its disbandment in 1933 . In 1915 , one company served with distinction in France with the 107th Pioneers . The whole regiment was employed during 1915 – 1916 with the Kalat Column , and at Khwash in Sistan under General Dyer . In 1917 they served on the Mohmand Blockade Line , and sent one company to join the 128th Pioneers in Mesopotamia . In 1918 , the whole regiment proceeded to Mesopotamia where , after serving for some months with the 18th Indian Division on the Tigris above Baghdad , they joined the 2nd Corps and were employed in helping the drive the railway through the Jabal Hamrin from Table Mountain on the Dajla ( Tigris River ) . During 1919 , they worked strenuously on the Shergat - Mosul line of communication s . In the autumn of that year they took part in the Kurdistan Operations . In 1920 , they were again employed on the Shergat - Mosul lines of communications , completing their labors in 1921 by constructing a new road down the bank of the Tigris from Shergat to Baji . They returned to Quetta in August 1921 . During the above operations , several Indian Orders of Merit , as well as a number of Indian Distinguished Service Medal s and Indian Meritorious Service Medals , were awarded to Hazaras for gallantry . During the Waziristan Operations of 1923 – 1924 , the Hazara Pioneers took part in the road making through the Baravi Tangi and the Shahur Tangi . Afterward , they helped with the construction of the railway and frontier roads in Zhob . In 1917 , due to the difficulty of enlisting a sufficient number of Hazaras from Afghanistan , the experiment was made of recruiting Baltis as a temporary measure . A recruiting party from the 106th Hazara Pioneers visited Baltistan in the late autumn of 1917 . About 100 recruits were enlisted during 1917 – 1918 and even brought to Quetta for training , but the war ended before any of them were able to join the regiment overseas . After the armistice , nearly all these Baltis were demobilized and returned to their homes . In 1922 , the 106th Hazara Pioneers became the 1st Battalion 4th Hazara Pioneers under the new numbering system employed in the British Indian Army , where multi - battalion regiments replaced single - battalion regiments . The 4th Hazara Pioneers were one of four Pioneer units in the 1922 reorganisation , including the 1st Madras Pioneers , 2nd Bombay Pioneers , and 3rd Sikh Pioneers .