On July 30, 1868, the detachment of Hadji Dimitar and Stefan Karadzha was defeated by Ottoman regular troops on Mount Buzludzha.
Prior to this, the squad fought several battles and lost men. The survivors managed to reach Stara planina, as a group of 14 – 15 people fall behind and separate. The last thirty people, headed by Hadji Dimitar, reached the peak of Buzludzha, where they were surrounded by regular and irregular Turkish units consisting of about 700 people. The battle lasted more than three hours, the remnants of the platoon suffered heavy losses. Some scholars believe that Hadji Dimitar was also killed in the fierce battle. The surviving dozen Chetniks tried to break through the cordon of the Turkish troops, but only a few people escaped. Duke Stefan Karadzha died on July 31 from his wounds in prison.
According to other researchers, however, Hadji Dimitar was only seriously wounded at Buzludzha and taken out of battle by three of his Chetniks, and for three days he was taken to Mount Kadrafil, in Sarnena Sredna Gora, near the present-day village of Svezhen (then Ajar). There, despite the care of local shepherds, Hadji Dimitar died of his wounds around August 5/August 17, 1868. He was buried in the same place.
Twelve years later, in November 1880, the bones were solemnly reburied in the yard of the church “St. St. Peter and Paul“ in the village of Ajar by the vicar of Plovdiv, Bishop Gervasius of Leukius (later, Metropolitan of Sliven). A little later, Hadji Dimitar's mother collected these bones and they were reburied in the church of “St. Nicholas the Wonderworker“ in Klutsokhor district in Sliven. In 1970, in connection with a complete reconstruction of the house museum “Hadji Dimitar“ and the restoration of the demolished buildings, the bones were handed over to the Regional History Museum in Sliven.