File 948/1909 'Persia: Situation in the South; Condition of the Roads. Attack on Mr Bill. Road Guard Scheme.' [‎265v] (535/744)

was at once arranged, and the Governor also telegraphed to Kazerun directing that a
force of 300 tufangchis from there, 300 from Kamanj, 300 from Khist and bhabancara,
and 200 soldiers of Mansur-es-Sultaneh’s and the Mamasenni detachment should
collected at once to surround the robbers. The party escorting the doctor left abol!. -
midnight, with the object of reaching Khaneh Ziman as soon as it should be light
enough to approach the place with proper precautions. It consisted of His Majestys
consul, Dr. Woollatt, a volunteer in the person of Mr. Livingstone, twelve sowars
of the consular escort, and twenty Persian Cossacks under two officers. The behaviour
of the sowars through this trying and extremely cold march was excellent. At
Khaneh Zinian (6,300 feet) the cold was so severe that a running rivulet outside the
caravanserai A roadside inn providing accommodation for caravans (groups of travellers). was frozen over, but the men continued scouting eneigetically all the way.
The behaviour of the Persian Cossacks also was good, but they complained a good deal
of the cold and were inclined to lag a little. No sign of robbers was seen on the road,
and on arrival at Khaneh Zinian it was found that they had gone^ apparently straight
off with their booty. The caravanserai A roadside inn providing accommodation for caravans (groups of travellers). was full of pilgrims, wailing ovei their losses,
and cursing the Persian Government and the local authorities. They surrounded
Mr. Bill, begging him to get their goods back, and several asked why we did not
take the road into our own hands and make it, as one traveller observed, “ like
Bombay.” . ..
The wounded were found able to travel, after surgical attention, and a telephone
message was sent to Shiraz for tc kajawahs” and everything necessary. _ The whole
party was brought m on the 26th, the march being made with great caution and the
country well scouted. No sign of robbers was seen. 4
The scene of the attack was a section of the road lying in the wide and stony
bed of the Kara Agatch Biver, about 2 miles from Khaneh Zinian. The caravan was
a very large one, estimated by M. Passek to contain 200 mules. There was a good
deal of merchandise—chiefly carpets, tragacanth, and opium—and a large crowd of
pilgrims, who had been waiting the opportunity to travel, as they thought, m safety.
At the moment of the first attack the head of the caravan had nearly reached the
point where the road leaves the river bed, about 4 miles from Khaneh Zinian, and the
extreme rear, which was brought up by the Bussian party, was jnst reaching
the bridge, about 2 miles out. The whole of the intervening space was crowded
with mules, donkeys, and travellers on foot. r ihe first volley was fired by concealed
robbers at the head of the caravan, which was guarded by Haji Khairullah, the
kadkhuda of Khaneh Zinian, with fifteen tufangchis and six Persian infantry soldiers.
Haji Khairullah was well known for courage, and it was the evident object of the
robbers to get him out of the way at the first discharge. They were successful, for he
fell at the first shot, and his tufangchis took no further part in the fighting. The next
object was to cut off the Bussian party in the rear and prevent them from coming to
the assistance of the caravan. The robbers consequently concentrated their fire on
M. Passek’s party, bring on them from both sides of the river. For several minutes
they were under a very hot fire and were forced to take cover under the overhanging
bank of the actual watercourse of the Kara Agatch. Abandoning the road, they
worked their way gradually back to Khaneh Zinian, under fire all the time. Two
horses were killed on the road, and one man killed and one wounded as they were
descending into the river.
At the time of the first attack a pilgrim said, in the hearing of the Bussian
consulate gholam, that he saw Mohamed Ali Khan Kashguli.
The four Persian Cossacks fell back on the Bussian party fighting bravely; two
of them were wounded close by the bridge.
The Cossacks were sent out after everything became quiet and brought in the
dead body. No satisfactory evidence of the perpetrators was obtainable in Khaneh
Zinian. The villagers declared unanimously that the robbers were Boir Ahmadi, but
this is discounted by the fact that this tribe is a distant one, and the tribe itself is of
much less importance than the Kashgai. The governor-general’s opinion is that the
robbers came from various tribes, including the Kashguli.
The force summoned by the governor-general amounted at the end of the week to
about 200 men and one gun, collected at Mian Khotal, and urgently demanding money
and instructions. One body, from Kamarij, was starting when they had to divert
their attention to one of their own villages, which was attacked by Kashgai. Latest
news states that their leader, Mullah Khursid, is besieged by Kashgai in Kamarij. In
any case, there can be no doubt that if Soulet-ed-Dowleh did not actively instigate the
affair, it had his sympathy and support owing to the friendship of Nasr-ed-Dowleh
with the Bussians.