Anti-colonial Protests of Indigenous People
Although in mid-February the entire territory of the former Kokand Khanate and the southern part of Kyrgyzstan were annexed to Russia, some high-altitude areas, particularly Alay, Gulcha, and Pamir, effectively remained outside the sphere of the Russian Empire. In these hard-to-reach areas, former associates of the executed Pulat-khan found refuge from the tsarist punitive forces: Abdullabek, Omorbek, Sulayman Udaychi, Valikhan-Tyure, and several others.
Representatives of the tsarist colonial authority, frightened by the recently suppressed uprising, feared further outbreaks of popular protests and attempted to capture the aforementioned and other unreliable individuals and punish them severely. For this purpose, in the 20s of April 1876, a half-battalion under the command of Captain Isplat-bek was sent to Alay, particularly to the fortress of Daraut-Kurgan. During a clash with the nomads of the area, led by Abdullabek, the detachment suffered defeat, losing several men killed and wounded, and was forced to return to the city of Margilan. The actions of the second tsarist punitive detachment were also unsuccessful.
Meanwhile, part of the nomads of Alay (600 yurts) began to migrate from the mentioned area to the lowlands of the Gulcha valley in order to accept Russian citizenship, where a fortress of the same name was being built, housing a tsarist military detachment. Abdullabek, Omorbek, Sulayman Udaychi, Tanykul Pansat, Valikhan-Tyure, and some other influential figures, leading the local residents who decided to defend their independence with arms, occupied a strategically difficult position in the high-altitude area of Yangy-Aryk (or rather, Zhaniryk), 25 versts from Gulcha.
The number of rebels reached up to 1500 people. The uprising saw active participation from Kyrgyz of the Sarttar, Uljake, Kokche, and some other groups migrating in the mentioned high-altitude areas. As emphasized by the commander of the tsarist punitive detachment, "various origin vagabonds" joined the participants of the uprising. The participants interrupted caravan communication with Eastern Turkestan along the Tersk-Davan trade route. Additionally, there was a real threat of an attack by the insurgents on the tsarist military garrison located in the Gulcha fortress.
All of this alarmed the tsarist colonial authority and contributed to the organization of a special punitive detachment, which called itself the "Expedition to Alay." This detachment consisted of 390 armed soldiers and officers, led by Major General Skobeleva, who had gained experience in suppressing popular uprisings. This punitive detachment was to crush the mentioned uprising, clear the caravan route to Eastern Turkestan, and establish the power of the tsarist autocracy over the population of Alay and Gulcha, i.e., to annex the mentioned area to Russia.
Pulat-khan — the poor Kyrgyz who became a khan
