Ambela campaign

Ambela campaign
Part of the North-West Frontier Wars

A British picket and camp during the expedition
Date1863–1864
Location
Buffer zone between the Emirate of Afghanistan and the North-West Frontier Province of British India
Result British Indian victory[1][2]
Belligerents

United Kingdom British Empire

State of Swat
Yusufzai
Bunerwal tribe
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

  • reinforced by 4800
 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]

  1. ^ Stewart 2006, p. 183.
  2. ^ Jalal 2009, p. 115.
  3. ^ State and Tribe in Nineteenth-century Afghanistan: The Reign of Amir Dost Muhammad Khan (1826-1863)
  4. ^ Indian State Railways Magazine:Volume 7, Issues 1-3. Indian State Railways Magazine. 1933.
  5. ^ Karimi, Christine Noelle (1997). State and Tribe in Nineteenth-century Afghanistan: The Reign of Amir Dost Muhammad Khan (1826-1863). Psychology Press. p. 185. ISBN 9780700706297. Retrieved 6 June 2022.
  6. ^ N.-W.F. Province Gazetteers: Volume 6, Part 1. the University of California. 1931.
  7. ^ T. Moreman · (1998). The Army in India and the Development of Frontier Warfare, 1849-1947. p. 24.
  8. ^ Donald Featherstone (1973) Colonial Small Wars 1837-1901
  9. ^ Dr. Ishtiaq Ahmad. (2022) The Ambela Expedition 1863: A military failure but a Political triumph; An appraisal. Quarterly Journal of the Pakistan Historical Society