Attacks on Serbs during the Serbian–Ottoman War (1876–78)

January 18–19

With the Serbian capture of Niš, the Kumanovo villagers awaited the Serbian Army which went for Vranje and Kosovo. The Serbian artillery fire was heard throughout the winter of 1877/78. Ottoman Albanian troops from Debar and Tetovo fled the front and crossed the Pčinja, looting and raping along the way.

On January 18, 1878, 17 armed Albanians descended from the mountains into Oslare, shouting while entering the village. They first arrived at the house of Arsa Stojković, which they looted and emptied before his eyes, enraging Stojković who proceeded to punch one of them. He was shot in the stomach and fell down, though still alive, he took a stake and delivered a mighty blow to the shooter's head, dying with him. The villagers then quickly entered an armed fight with the Albanians, killing them.

On January 19, 1878, 40 Albanian deserters retreating from the Ottoman army broke into the house of elder Taško, a serf, in the Bujanovac region, tied up the males and raped his two daughters and two daughters-in-law, then proceeded to loot the house and left the village. Taško armed himself and persuaded the village to retaliate, tracing them in the snow and multiplying in numbers. The Albanian deserters were disperced, drunk, and were intercepted first at Lukarce, where 6 of them were beaten to death. They killed all of them.

With the taste of blood, revenge and victory, the retaliation grew into an uprising, with the avengers becoming rebels, riding armed on horse as soldiers, through the villages of Kumanovo and Kriva Palanka and called to revolt. The movement was strengthened by Mladen Piljinski and his group's killing of Ottoman Albanian haramibaşı Bajram Straž and his seven friends, whose severed heads were brought as trophées and used as flags in the villages. On January 20, 1878, the leaders of the Kumanovo Uprising were chosen.

January 26

At the same time, there was a massacre of Serbs in Pristina by armed Albanians who took advantage of the anarchy and confusion that followed. On January 26, refugees from Albanian-inhabited villages came to Pristina with news that Serbian outposts were already at Gračanica. Albanians started attacking Serb houses, and robbed, kidnapped, beat and killed people.

Armed Albanians gathered in the Serb-inhabited mahala of Panađurište, where most of the atrocities took place. Five men knocked on the door of gunmaker Jovan Janićijević (known as Jovan Đakovac). Jovan was a friend of the Serbian teacher Kovačević in Pristina. As no one opened, in order to cross the wall, three stood on each other. Jovan shot the one peeking into the yard, and the house was riddled with shots, and Jovan's wife was killed. Jovan took his children and broke the wall to his neighbour's house, a friend who was a Turk, and pushed them through the wall. His relative Stojan shot back, halting their attack. Jovan and Stojan defended themselves, while half a day passed with attacks and victims. The attackers left the premises through the Četiri Lule Street, then returned with hay and straws and set the house on fire, which was filled by smoke. Stojan surrendered on the promise of besa, however, he was decapitated, and his head was thrown on the street. Jovan, the only one left, entered the basement when the house broke down. With a shoulder wound, he rushed out the field and managed to shoot three of the attackers, before being killed. They marched the Pristina bazaar with his head on a pole.

For the 20 dead Albanians, they demanded redemption in blood; just one of the houses, of Hadži-Kosta, gave 17 victims. In the night, when fatigue and hunger stopped the massacre, the askeri counted the dead.