It was August 1947, but the newly created India and Pakistan were not savoring their hard won independence. Instead they were witnessing an orgy of bloodshed that Cyril Radcliffe’s butcher’s knife had unleashed with the Partition of the country. Over 6 million lives were lost in the largest cross-migration in history. Even as the horrors of Partition were unfolding, other problems arose. The Princely states had been given the option of acceding to India or Pakistan, and all had gone one way or the other. However, Jammu and Kashmir, the Muslim majority state ruled by the Hindu ruler Hari Singh, vacillated between India and Pakistan, and even toyed with the idea of remaining independent.
Jinnah was sure that Kashmir would join Pakistan, and as Maharaja Hari Singh wavered, Pakistan decided to annex the state through force. It launched “Operation Gulmarg” – an ingenious plan which came within an ace of succeeding and was only thwarted by the rapid actions of the Indian army in its first battle after independence.
Operation Gulmarg
“Operation Gulmarg”, as the Pakistani plan was code-named, was the brain child of Major General Akbar Khan, the then Director of Weapons and Equipment of the Pakistani Army. It involved building up a force of tribesmen from the North West Frontier Province, arming them and sending them into Kashmir to capture the state by force. (Regular battalions of the Pakistani army were not used so as to deny involvement – a tactic they have tried repeatedly even thereafter).The invaders were organised into “lashkars” of around a thousand tribesmen each and led by officers of the Pakistan Army who would operate in civilian clothing. Each lashkar had a Major as the Commanding Officer, assisted by a Captain and ten Junior Commissioned Officers. Around twenty such lashkars were created, and tasked to storm into Kashmir and seize Srinagar – an action which would de facto force Hari Singh to accede to Pakistan.
The main offensive was to be with six lashkars advancing along the Muzaffarabad – Srinagar road to capture Srinagar. Two subsidiary thrusts of two lashkars each, advanced alongside- one in the Jammu sector to the South, the other towards Ladakh in the North moving towards Leh. Surprisingly, even as this force built up, the government of India or the state of Kashmir received no information till they burst through on 22 October 1947, along the Abbotabad – Srinagar road, entered Muzaffarabad, and routed the single battalion of Jammu and Kashmir state forces there. The town was sacked, plundered and the women taken away to be brutally raped and sold into captivity. The raiders spent one day in the loot of Muzaffarabad and next day advanced towards Uri and Baramula on the way to Srinagar.
Uri fell on 24 October, and here the raiders were given their first resistance, when Brigadier Rajinder Singh, the Commander –in- Chief of the Kashmir state forces personally led the delaying action, destroying the iron girder bridge on the road to Baramula. He was killed leading the rear-guard action and later awarded a posthumous MVC. The invaders now pushed forward towards Baramula, just 56 kilometres from Srinagar. The same orgy of violence was repeated here as the town was plundered, the inhabitants killed and the women subjected to inhuman savagery. Even the nuns of the Christian Missionary Hospital were not spared and raped repeatedly and the hospital looted. The ransacking of Baramula delayed the invaders by three to four days, vital time which perhaps saved Srinagar.
On 24 October Maharaja Hari Singh, seeing the ravaging of his state, appealed to India for help, but India refused to send troops till the Maharaja formally acceded to India. On 26 October the Maharaja signed the Instrument of Accession agreeing to join the Indian Union. Kashmir now became part of India and the same day Indian troops were ordered to fly into Srinagar to save the beleaguered state.
Operation Rescue
The unit that received the honour to conduct the first military operation of independent India was 1 SIKH. It was on Internal Security duties in Gurgaon and hastily assembled at Palam airport by 0400 h 27 October. Like most battalions, it was not up to full strength and to make up its deficiencies, Sikh personnel from 13 Field Regiment, who were in Red Fort at the time, were placed under the battalion.
On 27 October at 0600 hours, the first Dakota, with the Commanding Officer, Lieutenant Colonel Dewan Ranjit Rai, on board took off. He was given one set of maps and the Operational Order from Army HQ and was not aware of the exact situation or the fact that Baramula had already fallen. The initial lift only carried the Battalion Headquarters and C and D companies. On the way, one of the Dakotas carrying the Signal Platoon developed a snag and was forced to land at Jammu. It would join them only three days later, and in that time the battalion would be without radio communication at a time it needed it most. Even as the sorties took off, it was not known if Srinagar airfield was safe or in the hands of the enemy. Rai had been instructed to establish wireless communication with the airfield and land only after receiving confirmation. Else he was to land at Jammu and then move to Srinagar by road. As the Dakotas reached the contact point, the confirming crackle of the wireless message reached Rai and at 8.30 am the first Dakotas touched down at Srinagar’s dusty airstrip. The Indian army had arrived.
On landing, Rai requisitioned whatever transport he could get and sent one company under Capt Kamaljit Singh towards Baramula and one company under Major Harwant Singh to conduct a flag march in Srinagar town to reassure the population. As Capt Kamaljit Singh approached the town he saw smoke and realised that the town had fallen. He now organised a hasty defensive position east of the town near Milestone 32 on the hills astride the road Baramula- Srinagar. Col Rai also moved toward Baramula along with D company (which had left behind one platoon for the defence of the airfield and one platoon to protect the bridge leading to Srinagar.) and joined the force at Milestone 32. On 29 October, the heavily armed raiders launched repeated attacks on his positions and soon outflanked his position. Rai ordered the battalion to move back from Baramula and occupy an intermediate position at Pattan. As Rai was conducting a skilful withdrawal, a burst of enemy fire killed him on the spot. Major Harwant Singh, MC, commanding D coy and the senior most officer with all of six years of service, took over the battalion. He decided to make a stand at Milestone 17, near Pattan, with the four odd platoons he had at his disposal. The position was barely occupied when the leading column of raider approached and were ambushed with heavy casualties. The raiders launched repeated attacks on the position, but 1 SIKH stood firm and held on grimly for 48 hours. Those 48 hours were vital as they enabled additional troops to be landed at Srinagar airfield, and gave time to coordinate the defences of the town
.
It would be fair to say that those 48 hours shaped the map of India. The two other companies of 1 SIKH flew in and joined the battle and the battalion held fast at Pattan preventing the enemy from advancing towards Srinagar. Additional troops of 161 Infantry brigade flew in, and the Indian army built up its defences around Srinagar. A Pakistani attack on Bagdam airfield was repulsed with heavy casualties on 03 Nov. (an action that saw Major Somnath Sharma being awarded India’s first Param Vir Chakra). Just a week later, Indian troops encircled and destroyed a large concentration of raiders at Shalateng. It then went slowly on the counter-offensive. For over a year the Indian army, slowly pushed back the Pakistani army from their captured positions. It was only Nehru’s ill-conceived decision to go to the United Nations that prevented the army from recapturing all the lost territory. When the ceasefire finally came into effect on 31 December 1948, Pakistan still held on to over a third of the state. The jagged line dividing Indian and Pakistani positions at the time of the cease-fire became the Line of Control which even today is one of the most volatile areas of the world.
The actions of 1 SIKH and its gallant Commanding Officer have gone down in history. Lt Col Rai was posthumously awarded the MVC and even today, 27 October, the day the unit landed in Srinagar is celebrated as Infantry Day – the day when the Indian Army saved the valley.
You can see a video of the action at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=huvEzONcutw