 in one of their raids had kidnapped Muslim women travelling from Sri Lanka to Arabia, thus providing a "casus belli" against Sindh Raja Dahir when Raja Dahir expressed his inability to help retrieve the prisoners.After two expeditions were defeated in Sindh Al Hajjaj equipped an army built around 6,000 Syrian cavalry and detachments of "mawali" from Iraq, six thousand camel riders, and a baggage train of 3,000 camels under his Nephew Muhammad bin Qasim to Sindh.His Artillery of five catapults were sent to Debal by sea ("manjaniks").