The following were the orders issued for the advance of the four columns:
No. 1 Column to move on the 4th to Mana-ka-Dana, and the following day to Chitabat, leaving a sufficient force at Mana-ka-Dana to protect its line of communications.
No. 2 Column to advance up the Barchar spur on the 4th, occupying Barchar; thence moving on the 5th to the crest of the ridge, one regiment being at once detached to the left to meet No. 3 Column.
No. 3 Column to advance up the Sambalbat spur to the village of the same name, which was to be occupied on the 4th. The advance to be continued to the crest on the 5th. The 24th Punjab Infantry and two guns Derajat Mountain Battery to move up the Chatta Spur, meeting the remainder of No. 3 Column on the morning of the 5th at the junction of the Sambalbat and Chatta spurs. The Khyber Rifles to advance up the Chajri spur between Nos. 2 and 3 Columns on the 5th.
No. 4 Column to advance on the 4th to the neighbourhood of Kotkai on the Indus.
The first three columns carried out their orders on the 4th and 5th, the 2nd and 3rd Columns practically unmolested, the 1st with but slight opposition, which chiefly took the form of firing into the bivouacs after nightfall; but the opposition experienced by the 4th, and more isolated, Column was of a considerably more serious character.
This column, under Colonel Crookshank, and accompanied by the Brigadier, crossed the frontier on the morning of the 4th and advanced to Bela on the Indus by a road which had been made practicable the previous day. The river bank was reached at 8 a.m., and a halt was made to allow the column to close up. On the advance being resumed, the village of Shingri was carried with but trifling opposition, but about a mile beyond large numbers of the enemy were found in occupation of a strong position about the villages of Towara and Kotkai, with both flanks held by skirmishers and even defended by guns. The flanks were turned by the 34th Pioneers and 4th Punjab Infantry,[17] but the advance was necessarily very slow, and the line was suddenly charged by a body of _ghazis_ who had been concealed in a nullah on the left flank of the Royal Irish Regiment; they were, however, nearly all shot down before they arrived at close quarters. The enemy now began to break, and by 3.30 p.m. were in full retreat towards Kanar, when Kotkai was occupied.