Shortly after the annexation of the Punjab a preventive line was established along the left bank of the Indus, so far as British jurisdiction extended, to prevent trans-Indus salt being smuggled into the Punjab. In 1851 this line was extended five miles beyond Torbela to a point on the Indus where the cis-Indus territory of the Nawab of Amb commenced. In November of that year two of our customs officials, visiting this portion of the border, were murdered by a band of armed Hassanzais, when actually within the bounds of the Nawab of Amb. The Nawab was at once called to account, and delivered up such Hassanzais as happened to be within his territory, for which act the Hassanzais made war upon him, laid waste his border villages, and seized two of his forts: upon this, British interference became necessary, and orders were issued for the assembly of a punitive force. [Sidenote: Expedition of 1852–53] _Expedition against the Black Mountain Hassanzais, 1852–53._—In December 1852 the troops, as enumerated below, were concentrated at Shergarh on the north-western border of the Hazara district under the command of Lieut.-Col. Mackeson,[5] C.B., Commissioner of Peshawar. Four guns, 5th Troop, 1st Brigade, H.A. Six guns, Mountain Train Battery. 16th Irregular Cavalry.[6] 7th Company Sappers and Miners. 3rd Native Infantry.[7] Kelat-i-Ghilzie Regiment.[8] Four Companies Corps of Guides. 1st Sikh Infantry.[9] 176 men Rawal Pindi Police. Two Regiments Kashmir Dogras. Levies (1760 men). The force was divided into three columns with a reserve, occupying respectively Chatta, Shingli, Shoshni and Shergarh. The fort at Shingli, which was one of the two that had been captured by the Hassanzais from the Nawab of Amb, was recovered without loss, and while our troops were engaged in making it defensible, the Hassanzais and Akazais occupied the crest of the Black Mountain, and advanced their picquets close up to Chatta. The authorities had forbidden the employment of the regular troops with the force on the top of the mountain at so late a season of the year, so that they were thereby restricted to the duties of a reserve at Shergarh—where, confined in a narrow valley and incumbered with all kinds of _impedimenta_, they were of little or no assistance to a force engaged in mountain warfare. Col. Mackeson consequently decided to move the reserve of regular troops round to the banks of the Indus, behind the Black Mountain, and thus to turn the position on the heights; and to let each column of attack trust to a small reserve of its own, and to the fort at Shergarh in the rear, if all were beaten back.