Yeah they whoopped them pretty good in Gunga Din.
The truth is that the real story of the suppression of the Thuggee was based on modern police forensics, led by one man, William Henry Sleeman. He correctly realized that the Thugs were much like a giant criminal gang, and he treated them as such.
As such, he coerced captured Thugs to give each other up, plotted all their favorite ambush sites, identified their leaders, etc. The army was pretty much at his command, as available, and there were hangings a-plenty, if they felt like surrender, or bullets, if they didn’t.
It also helped that nobody liked the Thugs, and were more than happy to see them gone. It was a highly effect law and order campaign.