With the men who were left, Saiyid Ahmad crossed the Indus and proceeded to Balakot, where the believers again rallied to him, and he gave battle once more to a Sikh army under Sher Singh. He was, however, signally defeated, he himself being slain, and, out of the 1600 Hindustanis who had taken the field with him, only 300 escaping to Sitana. This was a refuge for outlaws and for offenders of all kinds from Yusafzai and Hazara, and belonged to one Saiyid Akbar, who had been Ahmad’s counsellor and treasurer. Here the Hindustanis established a colony and built a fort which they called Mandi. CHAPTER IV. YUSAFZAIS AND GADUNS: OPERATIONS.[25] None of the dwellers in the territories described in the last chapter gave us any trouble during the first few years which followed upon the taking over of the frontier by the British. In 1853, however, it became necessary to punish the Hindustani fanatics, who had afforded some assistance to the Hassanzais during the expedition which the British Government undertook against them in the previous year, and who had seized the fort at Kotla on the right bank of the Indus, belonging to the Nawab of Amb. Early in January 1853, Lieutenant-Colonel Mackeson, C.B., moved the following force down to the Indus opposite Kotla: Two guns, Mountain Train Battery. 1st Sikh Infantry. 3rd Sikh Infantry. Two Dogra regiments of the Kashmir Army. Six Wallpieces. Six Zamburaks. On the 6th the force was ferried across from Kirpilian in two large boats, and the Sikh regiments and mountain guns advanced, when the Hindustanis evacuated the fort and fled, being pursued and having considerable loss inflicted upon them by the Nawab of Amb’s men. There was no more trouble in the Peshawar district until the year of the Mutiny, and it was then almost entirely due to the presence on the Yusafzai frontier of the Hindustani fanatics, who were supported by contributions of men and money from traitorous princes and private individuals in India. [Sidenote: The Mutineers of the 55th]