Mullah Abdullah

Mullah Abdullah arrived in South Australia in about 1890,[1] primarily in search for a job. He found one as a cameleer in 1899, at Broken Hill, New South Wales.[2] It is alleged he also served as an imam to the Broken Hill "Afghan" immigrants at their "Ghantown", leading daily prayers, and was the spiritual head of the group of "Afghan" cameleers.[3] However, evidence of his disposition, his drug use, and support against him from other cameleers, amongst other things, weakens the claim that he ever held a position of standing, religious or otherwise, amongst the cameleer community.[4] He was at one point a butcher, though suggestions that he was in charge of the killing of animals according to the principles of halal for consumption by Muslims is weak and highlights an ignorance of Islamic practice by the scholars that suggest this.[4] He was prosecuted twice for killing animals outside of the designated abattoir and it is suggested that he was fined for his allegedly unsanitary means of killing the animals[5] and for not joining the local Butchers' Union. However, this overlooks the then sanatory inspector who it is suggested had political aspirations and fined everyone at any instance to show a toughness on sanatory breaches. This caused Abdullah to bear great ill-feeling towards the Union, as well as the local sanitary inspector, Brosnan, who prosecuted him.[6]

Another camel-driver and Abdullah's next-door neighbour, Gool Badsha Mahomed, was an Afridi tribesman from Afghanistan, and had fought in the Turkish Army. After the start of World War I, his religious and nationalistic fervour increased as he became infuriated by the conflict.[7]

Mullah Abdullah and Gool formed an alliance and plotted a mass shooting, to take place on 1 January 1915 in the Battle of Broken Hill. On that date, the duo opened fire on the open carriages of a picnic train which was taking people to Silverton for the annual Manchester Unity Order of Oddfellows New Year's Day picnic. Following a long exchange of fire, local police officers shot Abdullah dead. Gool died of gunshot wounds in hospital. The total death toll among the train passengers was four, with seven others severely wounded.[8] Abdullah and Gool were buried secretly at a public building later that day.