Macpherson's dispositions were simple.
His mountain guns shelled with effect the Kohistanee tribesmen, and then
he moved forward from the Surkh Kotul in three columns. His skirmishers
drove back the forward stragglers, and then the main columns advancing at
the double swept the disordered masses before them, and forced them
rearward into their intrenched position in front of the Karez village.
There the resistance was half-hearted. After a brief artillery
preparation the columns carried the position with a rush, and the
Kohistanees were routed with heavy loss. Meer Butcha and his Kohistanees
well beaten, Macpherson camped for the night near Karez. Baker had
reached his assigned position in the Maidan valley, and there seemed a
fair prospect that the operation against Mahomed Jan as originally
designed might be carried out notwithstanding the interruption to its
prosecution which had been found necessary. For there was good reason to
believe that the Afghan commander and his force, whose strength was
estimated at about 5000 men, were in the vicinity of Urgundeh, about
midway between Macpherson at Karez and Baker in the Maidan valley. If
Mahomed Jan would be so complaisant as to remain where he was until
Macpherson could reach him, then Roberts' strategy would have a
triumphant issue, and the Warduk general and his followers might be
relegated to the category of negligable quantities.
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