ARREST OF AN INDIAN MUTINEER OF 1857.

Westport Times, Volume V, Issue 886, 11 November 1871, Page 3

ARREST OF AN INDIAN MUTINEER OF 1857.

An Indian paper says:—" We have to announce the capture in the Bombay Presidency of Moulvie Liakat A li, the Allahabad mutineer of 1857. Since that year he has been wandering up and down the country, preaching hostility to the British Government. This ruffian is a native of Mahgaon, the most disaffected village of Chail, the most disaffected pergunnah of the district. He is a weaver by caste, and in 1857 was by trade a schoolmaster. The excessive sanctity of this bigot bad gained for him the respect of his village, so that on the first outbreak of the rebellion the Mahommedan zemindars of Chail, only too ready to follow any leader, placed Liakat AH at their head, and marching into Allahabad proclaimed bim the governor of the district in the name of the King of Delhi. His headquarters were fixed in the Khoosroo Bagh, and there the rebel court was held. Two ninepounder guns, which had been sent by Colonel Simson, the day before with a party of the 6th Native Infantry to Daragunge, were dragged by the rebels to the gardens and put up inside the gate. Pires, murders, and rapine filled even the natives with horror, but there was no system in the outbreak—no concert between the mutineers. The Moulvie headed the Mahommedans, while the Pragwal Brahmins carried with them the Hindu population. The troops fought on their own account. On the 11th June, Colonel Neill arrived in Allahabad, and assumed command of the fort. On the 15th, a grand attack was made by a party of Fusiliers, Sikhs, and Irregulars on Kydgunge and Mooteegunge, supported by a steamer moving up the Jumna with a howitzer and some riflemen on board. The rebels were beaten at every point, and our troops followed them up closely. The terror of approaching punishment soon broke up the Moulvie's camp in the Khoosroo Bagh; and on the night of the 16th Liakat AH and all his followers fled, leaving behind them the two guns and a number of prisoners, among them the brave young Cheek, who died the same evening, his body covered with wounds and sores, and his mind wandering. Conductor Coleman was also among the Moulvie's prisoners, and died soon after his release, from the wounds he had received in his capture. Meanwhile the Moulvie had escaped; from the 17th June, 1857, up till now he has been wandering about the country to stir up the people to bring back the old days, when the hold of the British on India was being loosened and he (Liakat Ali) was reigning in the Khoosroo Bagh at Allahabad."

Mr J E Ollivant, M. A., has recently published the result of a trip fom New Zealand under the title of "A Breeze from the Great Salt Lake; or, New Zealand to New York by the New Mail Route."