The Battle of Broken Hill
otherwise known as the Broken Hill Massacre
, was a fatal incident which took place near Broken Hill, New South Wales
on 1 January 1915. Two Islamic men shot dead four people and wounded seven more, before being killed by police and military officers. While the attack was politically and religiously inspired, as declared by the perpetrators in notes, the men were not members of any sanctioned armed force. The two men were later identified as being Muslims
from the British colony of India
, modern day Pakistan
The attackers were both former camel-drivers working at Broken Hill. They were Badsha Mahommed Gool (born approx 1874), a local imam and halal butcher.
Gool's ice-cream cart was well-known in town and was used to transport the men to the attack site. They also fashioned a home-made Ottoman flag which they flew. There appears to have been little effort made at hiding their identities.
Abdullah had arrived in Broken Hill around 1898 and worked as a camel driver, before becoming a mullah
and slaughtering animals according to halal
Islamic rites. Several days before the killings Adbullah was convicted by Chief Sanitary Inspector Brosnan for slaughtering sheep on premises not licensed for slaughtering. It was not his first... Read More