 In early 1917, the uprising, successful at first, was put down with Austro-Hungarian reinforcement and bloody reprisals followed on the civil population.Pećanac's Chetniks were then used for sabotage and raids against the Bulgarian occupation, then infiltrated the Austro-Hungarian occupied zone.In 1912, Chetniks (known as komite) committed numerous crimes on the Albanian and Turk population in Kumanovo during the night.