The Broken Hill massacre is a terrorist attack that occurred on January 1, 1915 near the Australian city of Broken Hill , New South Wales . Two men shot four people and injured seven more before they were killed by the police and the military. The attack was organized on the basis of political and religious predilections, the criminals were not members of any criminal community. Two attacking men were later identified as Muslims from British India (modern Pakistan ) [1] [2] .
Content
Criminal Persons
Both attackers previously worked as camel riders in Broken Hill. Their names were: Badsha Muhammad Gul (born in 1874, an ice cream merchant [3] ) and Mullah Abdullah (born in 1854, an imam and a butcher [4] ). The Badshi Gula ice cream cart was well known in the city, it was in it that he brought Abdullah and weapons to the site of the massacre [1] [5] . They also made the home-made flag of the Ottoman Empire and mounted it on a cart. Moreover, they did not make much effort to conceal their identity [1] [5] .
In 1898, Abdullah arrived in Broken Hill and worked as a camel driver, then became a mullah and slaughtered animals in accordance with the Islamic rite in violation of Australian law. A few days before the killings, Abdullah was convicted of slaughtering sheep in a room not licensed for slaughter. This was not his first offense [6] . At the trial, the doctor, Mr. Brosnan, noted that unauthorized slaughter of animals is unsanitary [5] .
Train Assault
On January 1, 1915, local members of the Manchester Unity Order of Oddfellows went on a picnic to the village of Silverton . The train from Broken Hill to Silverton carried 1,200 passengers in 40 wagons. Three kilometers from the city, Abdullah and Gul took up a position on the rash (about 30 meters from the rails). When the train approached, they fired from two rifles, firing from 20 to 30 shots. Passengers initially thought that the shots were fired in honor of a passing train, but as soon as their comrades began to fall, they realized that it was an attack. 17-year-old Alma Qui died on the spot. William John Shaw, a medical worker, was killed on a train, and his daughter, Lucy Shaw, was injured. Six other people on the train were injured: Mary Cavan, George Stokes, Thomas Campbell, Alma Crocker, Rose Crabb and Constable Robert Mills. [7] The train guard, Dick Nyholm, fired back, which played an important role in protecting train passengers from further shelling of the attackers [8] .
Police Response
After the attack, Gul and Mullah Abdullah with a trolley set off from the railway track towards the Afghans camp in which they lived. Along the way, they killed Alfred Millard, who lived in his hut. By this time, the train stopped on a siding and the police were called by telephone. The police contacted Lieutenant Resch, who served at the local base of the Australian armed forces , after which the military arrived for reinforcements. When police discovered Gul and Abdullah near the Cable Hotel , Robert Mills received another bullet wound from gunmen. Gul and Abdullah then took refuge not far from the white quartz deposit, which served as a good shelter. Then followed a 90-minute shootout with the police, during which armed members of the public arrived to assist the police and the army. Toward the end of the battle, a small number of shots were heard from the shelters of the attackers, and Constable Ward concluded that Mullah Abdullah was already dead and Gul was wounded. James Craig, a 69-year-old resident of a house at Cable Hotel, chopped wood during a firefight, got hit by a stray bullet, and was killed. He became the fourth dead [7] . Eyewitnesses later claimed that Gul was lying unconscious with a white rag tied to his rifle, there were 16 bullet wounds on him. The crowd did not allow Abdullah to be loaded into the ambulance. On the same day, both bodies of the attackers were buried in a secret place by the police.
Consequences
The attackers left notes explaining their actions by the outbreak of war between the Ottoman and British Empires , which was officially declared in October 1914. Believing that he would be killed, Muhammad Gul left a dying letter in his belt, in which he wrote: "I must kill you and give my life for my faith , Allahu Akbar." Mullah Abdullah indicated in his last letter that he was dying for his faith and for the glory of the Ottoman Sultan, but because of his grudge against the chief medical officer Brosnan, he intended to kill him first [9] .
Besides the fact that the police were forced to stop the crowd of Australians who were ready to attack the Afghans camp the next night, there was no violence against the Muslim community afterwards. The actions of the attackers were seen as unfriendly behavior by the Germans . Assuming that the Germans provoked the Afghans to organize a massacre, the locals burned down the German club in Broken Hill [9] [10] .
The next day, all employees who came from countries hostile to the British Empire were laid off in the Broken Hill mines. Six Austrians, four Germans and one Turks were expelled from the city [10] . The flag of the Ottoman Empire, found near the site of the massacre, was subsequently used for propaganda purposes in order to rally the Australian public in war [11] .
Reflection in popular culture
In the late 1970s. an attempt was made to shoot the movie The Battle of Broken Hill , but the director Donald Cromby did not finish the project [12] [13] .
In 1981, the documentary "The Battle of Broken Hill" was shot [14] [15] .
Notes
- ↑ 1 2 3 Battle of Broken Hill: Ron visits this Outback area of New South Wales (link not available) . Archived November 14, 2013.
- ↑ Of Art and War on Broken Hill .
- ↑ Badsha GOOL Death Certificate . Archived on October 5, 2007.
- ↑ Mullah ABDULLAH Death Certificate . Archived July 6, 2011.
- ↑ 1 2 3 The Argus. January 6, 1915
- ↑ The Argus 2 January 1915
- ↑ 1 2 Barrier Miner, 2 January 1915.
- ↑ Nyholm, Sir Ronald Sydney (1917-1971) Biographical Entry - Australian Dictionary of Biography Online
- ↑ 1 2 Stevens, Christine. Tin Mosques and Ghantowns; A History of Afghan Cameldrivers in Australia. Oxford University Press. Melbourne 1989, p. 163 ISBN 0-19-554976-7
- ↑ 1 2 Jones, Mary Lucille. The Years of Decline: Australian Muslims 1900-1940, in Mary Lucille Jones (ed) An Australian pilgrimage: Muslims in Australia from the seventeenth century to the present . Victoria Press in association with the Museum of Victoria. p. 64 ISBN 0-7241-8450-3
- ↑ Sayın Apo Anzak oldu! .
- ↑ David Stratton, The Last New Wave: The Australian Film Revival , Angus & Robertson, 1980 p281
- ↑ Production Survey, Cinema Papers , January 1978 p251
- ↑ The Battle of Broken Hill at IMDB
- ↑ Website for the film (link not available) . Date of treatment November 2, 2013. Archived November 3, 2013.