The villagers, however, appeared unwilling to be compromised by harbouring British troops, said they were quite capable of taking care of themselves, objected to the troops entering their village, and seemed, in fact, anything but friendly.
Early next morning Captain O’Moore Creagh took up a position partially covering the village, and then, finding crowds of Mohmands crossing the river and threatening his flank, he withdrew to a better position near a graveyard and on the river bank, where he hastily threw up an entrenchment. He had by this time been reinforced by thirty-six rifles of his regiment from Dakka. Scarcely had this entrenchment been completed, about 9 a.m., and followers and baggage animals been brought under cover, water stored, etc., when the enemy came down from the hills and completely surrounded the detachment. They persistently attacked from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., frequently getting to the closest quarters, and having to be repulsed with the bayonet. The ammunition now began to run low, the enemy had closed in all round to within sixty to a hundred yards, and the situation became most critical, when it was relieved by the opportune approach of reinforcements.
These had been sent off from Dakka and Lundi Kotal so soon as the situation at Kam Dakka had become known at divisional headquarters. Under cover of the fire of the reinforcing troops, and some dashing charges by a troop of the 10th Bengal Cavalry, the Mhairwara detachment was withdrawn from the entrenchment, and the retirement on Dakka was commenced. This was reached about 8.30 p.m., the enemy pressing the rearguard closely, but being unable, owing to the darkness, to cause more than a very few casualties. A strong force of all arms moved out on the next day to Kam Dakka, but few of the enemy were met with.
In April, 1879, the same month as the Kam Dakka affair above related, Muhammad Sadik Khan, the eldest son of Nauroz Khan, who was with the British force at Gandamak, fled from the camp and joined the Amir Yakub Khan—whose mother was a sister of Nauroz Khan—and, as soon as our troops left Dakka in June, 1879, he was appointed Khan of Lalpura in the place of the Khan installed in 1875. When the second invasion of Afghanistan took place, the Khan of Lalpura hesitated for some days as to what action he should take, but at length appeared at Dakka, and for two months all went well at Lalpura and also at Goshta.