CHAPTER X
" THE WILD VALLEY " OF BANNU
Bannu was reached after an eighty miles7 motor
drive. In ail important villages on the way people had
erected arches of green plantain stems and tree leaves and
beflagged the approaches to the villages to accord Gan-
dhiji a welcome. For eight miles on this side of Bannu
Red Shirts posted at regular intervals interspersed with.
knots of Waziris, Bhittanis and Orakzais, lined the route.
Their flowing robes, loose baggy, pyjamas, camels and
native matchlocks which they carried on their shoulders-
lent a bizarre effect to the reception which was enlivened
by the playing of surnais and the beating of drums.
Bannu is a walled town. It was still under the shadow
of a recent raid which, by the peculiar circumstances ac-
companying it, had at that time startled the whole of India.
A party of raiders numbering between 100 and 250 had
marched one evening at about 7-30 p. m. into the city
through one of the city gates, which they either forced
or got opened by the sentries on duty. They looted shops
while the town was still awake, fired joy shots, smashing:
municipal electric lamps as they advanced, and set a
number of shops on fire. Yet, strange to say, they met
with no resistance from the police and made their exit as
openly as they had come in, carrying away with them
booty which was variously estimated at one to over three
lakhs of rupees. Several people were killed during the
raid.
According to an official statement, 22 raids by tribes
on the North-Western Frontier had occurred in Bannu
and other places in British Indian territory during the
three months preceding this raid. Thirteen Hindus and
Muslims had been killed. The value of cash and property
looted amounted to Rs. 1,33,830. Following upon the raid,
about a dozen Hindus had been kidnapped.
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