3-082-558 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The Chitral Expedition: Swat River ferry at Abazai, 1895. 'Gilgit is, of course, reached from India through the friendly territory of Kashmir. The plan of operations from the Peshawur Valley is across the frontier by the Malakand and Shahkot passes into the Swat Valley, and from that through Panjkora to Dir, from which a pass leads over to the Chitral Valley...Lieutenants Fowler and Edwards, who were taken prisoners when Captain Ross was killed, are in the hands of Umra Khan, at Barwa, near Miankalai, which is in Bajaur, and this can only be reached after the Panjkora River has been passed...The troops under Sir Robert Low have with hard fighting carried the Malakand and Shahkot passes, and have occupied the fords of the Swat River...The column under Colonel Kelly, which is operating from Gilgit, is stopped at Ghizr, owing to the snowstorms in the pass leading over to the Chitral Valley at Mastuj...General Sir Michael A. Biddulph, K.C.B., who supplies two sketches of the Swat River and the Malakand Pass, is, we are proud to say, an old correspondent, who has communicated many sketches to The Illustrated London News. In the late Afghan War, and even so far back as the Crimean War, we were indebted to his pencil'. From "Illustrated London News", 1895.