It has been asserted that one of the reasons for these raids was that a rumour had been spread amongst the Wazirs and the Mahsuds, that Britain was going to give control of Waziristan to Afghanistan as part of the peace settlement following the Third Anglo-Afghan War.

As the 43rd and 67th Brigades were grouped together as the Derajet Column and committed to the fighting,[4] they met heavy resistance as the largely inexperienced Indian units came up against determined, well-armed tribesmen.

Due to the denuding of the Indian Army caused by commitments overseas during the First World War, many of the battalions employed in this campaign were second-line units with disproportionately large numbers of very young soldiers with inexperienced officers.

Equally notable was the counter-attack launched against the Mahsuds by just 10 men of the 4th/39th Garhwal Rifles, led by Lieutenant William David Kenny,[5] who received a posthumous Victoria Cross for his actions.

It was determined that a permanent garrison of regular troops would be maintained in the region to work much more closely with the militia units that were being reconstituted following the troubles that occurred during the 1919 war with Afghanistan.