RESISTANCE BY THE BORDER PEOPLE

Unlike the settled area the people dwelling of the western border of Hazara remained in a state of bitter hostility towards the British. They refused to acknowledge the British ascendance by heart and remained in a state of open revolt and the Government finding no other alternative sent more than four punitive expeditions against them in a short period of forty years.

The first occasion on which the British came into collision with any of the Trans border people of Hazara was in 1851. In the autumn of that year two officers of the customs department named Mr. Corne and Mr. Topp entered Hassazi territory with a view to obtaining first hand information as to the routes by which trans Indus salt found its way into the Punjab. They paid the penalty with their lives. The tribesmen refused to surrender the murderers and according to Captain HL Nevill. No alternative remained therefore but to send a punitive expedition into the Hassazi territory.

Though Lord Dalhousi at first was reluctant to take active measures against a tribe which he could not control permanently but later though necessary to vindicate the British prestige So order were at last issued for the Punishment of the offenders. According on 19^th December 1852 a force consisting of detachment from Guides and Ist Sikh and Dogra regiments some mountain guns and a number of levies and police under the command Col: Mackeson was sent. Several skirmishes occurred and the British Government considering the demolition of the Hassanzai village with all their crops a sufficient punishment for the murder of the two British officers retreated to its camps in January 1853.

Though after this event the tribes remained quiet for some time but after a few days they again created troubles for the Government on a large scale. Due to those troubles the Government besides blocking several tribes and levying fines on several villages was constrained to sending three more expeditions against the people with in a limited span of thirty years.

Making the resistance spineless besides conferring titles on the leading persons such as Khan Bahadur, Khan Sahib Knight Commander of the Star of India. The Government also adopted several preventive measures construction of military posts on the borders different approaches roads to those posts giving allowances to the khans recruiting men for border police from the independent clans providing arms to the border villages and to some extent succeeded in lessening resistance of the border people though after the 4^th BM expedition in 1891 there did not occurred a necessity of sending any punitive expedition against the border people of Hazara from the British side but the people throughout the British tenure  remained discontented with their rulers. They openly sided with the Amir of Afghanistan as well as the well known freedom fighter Haji Sahib of Turangzai and provided a considerable manpower support for the noble cause of both those personalities.

In the later days of the British rule when the Pakistan Movement was in full swing besides direct resistance to the Government some indirect methods like communal disturbances were also adopted in this area. These feelings were further ignited by the tragic communal riots of Calcutta  UP Bombay Bihar etc  and in addition to the destruction of several Hindu Temples and Sikh Gurdwaras resulted in 28 causalities resulted in a single day in a single border village Ogahi. In fact this was the area like other frontier border of the northern India about those Sir Olaf Caroe was of the opinion that a foot placed wrong in this area might at any times attract the responsibility not only of the central Government in India but of London itself.