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When Sir Bindon Blood began his advance against the Mohmands he equipped his 2nd Brigade entirely with mules. It was thus far more mobile, and was available for any rapid movement that might become necessary. To mix the two camels and mules appears to combine the disadvantages of both, and destroy the superiority of either.
Their situation was, however, in several important respects, different from that of the natives of the Swat Valley. These Mohmands had neither been irritated nor interfered with in any way. No military road ran through their territory. No fortified posts stirred their animosity or threatened their independence.
Yet the vacillation and hesitancy which the Government of India had displayed in the matter of the Bunerwals, and the shocking and disgraceful desertion of the forts in the Khyber Pass, were so fresh in all men's minds, that the order to advance against the Mohmands was received with feelings of the greatest relief throughout the forces.
To make his attempt successful he needed more men than he had under his command; he therefore ordered a tribe called the Mohmands to join him, and marched toward Peshawar, expecting to meet them on the way.
As the Mohmands were evidently present in great strength and hostilely inclined, and as his hospital establishment and commissariat were six miles in rear, and the brigade which ought to have covered his left flank was also behind by abandoning Pani Pal he would not only lose his communications with the latter and expose the former to danger and the risk of being cut off and captured, but would leave open the road by which the Mohmand contingent in Ali Masjid might retire from that fortress after its fall, or by which it could be reinforced in case that fall should be delayed.
The Pathan tribes along the North-west Frontier were straining at the leash; Afridis, Yusufzais, Mohmands, all the Pukhtana, were restless and excited. The mullahs were preaching a holy war; and the maliks, or tribal elders, could not restrain their young men. Raids into British Indian territory were frequent. There was worse menace behind.
When he and his followers arrived at the meeting-place, he found to his dismay that instead of the host of warriors he had expected, there was only a messenger from the chief of the Mohmands, who told him in very plain terms that they would have nothing to do with either the revolt or the attack on Peshawar.
If the Mohmands had come down the eastern slopes of the Rhotas Heights and fallen upon them as they stumbled and groped their way along the Lashora ravine, Macpherson would have had to choose between a retreat or an advance up the steep mountain side, three thousand feet high, in pursuit of an invisible enemy, and exposed to a shower of rocks and stones missiles which every hill-man knows well how to handle.
As soon as the news of the incursion of the Mohmands was received in Peshawar, a flying column was mobilised and proceeded under the command of Lieut.-Colonel J.B. Woon, 20th Punjaub Infantry, in the direction of the fort. At dawn on the 9th of August they found the tribesmen in force in a strong position near Shabdakr. The force at Colonel Woon's disposal was small. It consisted of:
Complimentary copies were sent to the "Sipah Salar" and other Afghan notabilities, and the fame of the Hadda Mullah was known throughout the land. Besides increasing his influence, his literary success stimulated his efforts. While the Mad Fakir was rousing Swat and Buner, this powerful priest incited the Mohmands.
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