The Jammu and Kashmir Rifles

The Uri Road, October 1947

At about 1 am on 27 October 1947 raiders fired on a retreating column of Jammu and Kashmir State Forces at Diwan Mandir, near Boniyar. His driver was killed. Brigadier Rajinder Singh, Chief of Staff of the State Forces for barely a month, drove on himself and was mortally wounded. He told his men to leave him and go on with the planned defence.

He had left Srinagar on the night of 22 October on the Maharaja's orders, with somewhere between 150 and 260 men in private vehicles. Muslim troops of the 4th Battalion had had mutinied near Muzaffarabad just before. Finding himself badly outnumbered at Garhi on 23 October, he fell back on Uri, and on 24 October had the bridge there blown with a 25-pound charge. He fought again at Mahura on 25 October and at Rampur on 26 October, then ordered the withdrawal towards Baramulla during which he was killed. The citation credits him with two crucial days. Some historians say about four. On 30 December 1949 he received a posthumous Maha Vir Chakra, the first awarded, and it was gazetted on 26 January 1950.

Skardu

The 6th Battalion had an even longer ordeal. Most of the unit was killed at Bunji when the Gilgit Scouts rose in the autumn of 1947 and part of the battalion rebelled. Major Sher Jung Thapa, whose company was at Leh, was given local rank as lieutenant colonel and sent to Skardu, arriving on 3 December. He asked permission to withdraw to Kargil and was refused.

The fort was besieged from 11 February 1948. Three relief columns set out, and none got through; one was destroyed at Thorgo in March, and another was ambushed at Parkutta in April. Thapa rejected a surrender demand in June. On 14 August 1948, with his ammunition gone, he capitulated. Accounts of what happened to the garrison conflict, but it is reported that all the remaining men except Thapa and his Sikh orderly were killed. He was released a few weeks later and received the Maha Vir Chakra.

Gulab Singh's State Forces

Maharaja Gulab Singh raised the Dogra State Forces at Jammu in about 1820, though 1821 is also given. Their pre-independence honours trace the expansion of his state and its later service abroad: Ladakh, Baltistan, Tibet, Gilgit, Hunza Nagar and Chitral, then East Africa, Kilimanjaro, Megiddo, Nablus and Meiktila.

The State Forces came under Indian command after the accession in October 1947. They were amalgamated into the Indian Army on 15 January 1957 as the Jammu and Kashmir Regiment, and in February 1963 the name changed to the Jammu and Kashmir Rifles. The training centre moved in 1975 from Morar, Gwalior, to Jabalpur. Dogras make up the bulk of the regiment, with Gorkhas, Sikhs and Muslims. Post-independence honours include Poonch, Skardu, Asal Uttar in 1965 and Syam Ganj in 1971.

Point 5140

13 JAK Rifles, under Lieutenant Colonel Y.K. Joshi, arrived at Drass in June 1999 as a reserve for the Tololing battle. It was then given Point 5140. Lieutenant Vikram Batra, commanding Delta Company, chose the words "Yeh dil maange more" as his success signal, and sent them at 0435 on 20 June from the captured position after an approach from the rear. His citation says he killed four of the enemy at close quarters. He was promoted to captain after the action.

Flat Top and Point 4875

The battalion moved to the Mushkoh Valley and attacked Point 4875 on 4 July. Rifleman Sanjay Kumar volunteered as leading scout of the column sent against Flat Top. When automatic fire from a sangar stopped the advance, he charged it and killed three men in hand-to-hand fighting, and was seriously wounded. He went on to a second bunker. The men there, taken by surprise, abandoned a Universal Machine Gun and ran. He picked it up and shot at them with it, and he refused evacuation while the company came up and took the feature. Lieutenant Colonel Joshi himself fired two Fagot missiles at one enemy position during the battle.

On 7 July Batra, who was unwell, insisted on going forward to reinforce the company on the point. He led a daylight assault on a sangar, and was hit by a sniper's bullet and an RPG splinter while bringing in a wounded soldier. He was awarded the Param Vir Chakra posthumously, and Sanjay Kumar received it for Flat Top.

The Tribune gives the battalion's Kargil record as two officers and 14 other ranks killed, and 37 gallantry awards, among them two Param Vir Chakras, eight Vir Chakras and 14 Sena Medals. Point 4875 was renamed Batra Top.

At a glance

• Regimental centre: Jabalpur, Madhya Pradesh
• Motto: Prashasta Ranveerta (Valour in Battle is Praiseworthy)
• War cry: Durga Mata Ki Jai