Ambela campaign | |||||||
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Part of the North-West Frontier Wars | |||||||
![]() A British picket and camp during the expedition | |||||||
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Belligerents | |||||||
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Commanders and leaders | |||||||
Neville Bowles Chamberlain (WIA) John Garvock John Paton Davidson † Henry Howard Chapman † |
Saidu Baba Sultan Muhammad Khan Sardar Darwiz Khan | ||||||
Strength | |||||||
6,000
| 15,000 men | ||||||
Casualties and losses | |||||||
3,000+ casualties including 1,000+ British [3] | Unknown |
The Ambela campaign (also called Umbeyla, Umbeylah, and Ambeyla) of 1863 was one of many expeditions in the border area between the Emirate of Afghanistan and the North-West Frontier of British India against the 'fanatics' at Malka, a colony of malcontents or bigoted muslims in the Yusufzai country.[4][5][6]
A force led by Neville Bowles Chamberlain planned to destroy Malka. They set up an operational base in the Chamla Valley which could be reached via the Ambela Pass, but they were soon bogged down by a numerically superior local force, and were attacked by the Swati, Bunerwal and Hindustani tribesmen.[7] Reinforcements drafted in by the local Commander-in-Chief eventually pursued a diplomatic resolution, they approached the Bunerwals and various Khans and leaders to accept peace and went on to burn a house in Malka with tribal permission and were conditioned to withdraw from the territory of Buner. The expedition broke the power of the 'fanatics' but resulted in the loss of 1,000 British casualties and an unknown number of Indian casualties.[8][9]