The Ladakh Scouts

The schoolboy from Sumur

Chewang Rinchen was 17 when raiders came down the Nubra valley in 1948. He came from Sumur, where the Shyok and Nubra rivers meet, and he was at school in Leh when Prithi Chand, an Indian Army officer who had crossed the Zoji La on foot with a small party, called for local volunteers. Rinchen was the first to come forward. He went back to his valley and gathered 28 young men, who became known as the Nubra Guards.

On 25 July 1948 the Guards were formally taken on as soldiers of the 7th J&K Militia. That September Rinchen held a position on the Kharu Nullah and helped retake Lama House, at about 17,000 feet. On 15 December his men took a position near Biagdangdo after a forced march of three days, with half the platoon frostbitten, and then Tukkar Hill, the last enemy post in Leh tehsil. He received the Maha Vir Chakra and is generally described as its youngest recipient.

A second militia battalion, the 14th J&K Militia, was raised at Srinagar on 2 May 1959. Both battalions fought in 1962, when Rinchen won a Sena Medal for leading a rescue patrol. On 1 June 1963 the 7th and 14th were amalgamated as the Ladakh Scouts.

Point 18402 and Chalunka

In August 1971 Rinchen, by then a major, rejoined the Scouts and began reorganising the Nubra Guards, enrolling 550 local volunteers in four companies. In December he led Dhal Force against Point 18402, a Pakistani picquet taken on 8 December. The next objective was the Chalunka complex in the Partapur sector: nine strong points, each held by one to two platoons and protected by mines and wire. His citation describes the fighting there as bunker to bunker.

The advance went on to Turtuk, entered on 14 December after the defenders had pulled out the night before. Thang and Takshi also came under Indian control, villages Pakistan had held since 1948. The regiment took the battle honour Turtuk. Rinchen received a Bar to his Maha Vir Chakra. He retired with the honorary rank of colonel and died in 1997.

Siachen, 21 February 1985

When India moved onto the Siachen Glacier in April 1984 under Operation Meghdoot, a company of Ladakh Scouts and a company of 4 Kumaon were landed by helicopter to secure the passes at Sia La and Bilafond La.

The regiment's only Ashoka Chakra came from the same glacier ten months later. On 21 February 1985 Lance Havildar Chhering Mutup led a patrol against a crest line overlooking an Indian post on the Saltoro ridge. Weather and visibility were poor. His citation says he took the patrol forward "gallantly from fold to fold", and the crest was captured.

Chorbat La

After the intrusions across the Line of Control were found in May 1999, the Scouts reconnoitred routes and fixed ropes for regular battalions arriving in the Kargil sector. Major Sonam Wangchuk of the Indus Wing was given a different task. According to his Maha Vir Chakra citation, on 30 May he was leading a column to occupy a ridge line at about 5,500 metres on the Line of Control in the Batalik sector when it was ambushed from higher ground. One of his NCOs was killed.

Wangchuk held the column together and led a raid against the enemy's flank, killing two soldiers. His men recovered a heavy machine gun, a universal machine gun, ammunition and three bodies. He then cleared the Chorbat La axis of intruders as far as the Line of Control. Accounts put his party at 30 to 40 men, and some date the action to 31 May.

Other actions followed in Batalik: Dog Hill on the night of 30 June, Point 5000 on 5 and 6 July, and Padma Go on 9 and 10 July. The defence journalist Ajai Shukla, writing in 2017, gave the cost as 31 men dead and the regiment's return as 55 gallantry awards. It also received the theatre honour Kargil. Wangchuk retired as a colonel and died of a heart attack on 10 April 2026, aged 61.

Sonam post, 2016

The regiment became a regular infantry regiment of the Army after Kargil. It recruits mainly in the Leh and Kargil districts and now has five battalions. Ladakhis can be sent above 15,000 feet without the acclimatisation other units need, and that fact governed what happened in February 2016, when an ice wall collapsed on Sonam post, at about 20,000 feet on the glacier, and buried ten soldiers of the Madras Regiment. Scouts were brought up directly from 12,000 feet to dig. They reached Lance Naik Hanumanthappa Koppad alive under the ice, though he died soon afterwards.

President Ram Nath Kovind presented the President's Colours to the Regimental Centre and the battalions on 21 August 2017. For the diamond jubilee in June 2023, flames were carried to Leh from the war memorials at Siachen, Kargil and Rezang La.

At a glance

• Raised: 1 June 1963
• Regimental centre: Leh, Ladakh
• War cry: Ki Ki So So Lhargyalo