Page 11 - Seniors Today - Vol1 Issue 3

The area which was now threatened was Thus, the inroads made by the enemy forces
Kargil, as all reinforcements for Skardu were
to go through this town. Due to many reasons
the Indian forces were all spread over the route
going to Kargil, and were not significant in
numbers ever to mount a major offensive to oust
the hostile forces. Ultimately in early May 1948,
Kargil fell. The Indians were badly mauled and
decimated. From Kargil they lost control of Dras
region (Dras garrison was surrounded, though
still in Indian control but very much isolated)
and then headed towards Zoji-La, with the
ultimate aim of getting to the Valley.
Ladakh was an isolated part of the state of
Jammu & Kashmir but strategically very
important, as it was the centre of trade routes
between China and the Middle East. It was
thus an important and coveted area for both
Pakistan and India. The Skardu garrison
having been “contained” opened the way for
the Pakistan-led force to move towards Leh by
way of Nubra Valley to the north and the Indus
valley in the immediate south. Kargil having
fallen, in the meanwhile, the enemy blocked
the communication lines and passage between
Srinagar and Leh, adding to the problems of
the small defensive positions of the State and
Indian Army. With no path left for the forces
to move forward and to reinforce areas around
Leh, the only option left was by way of air. A
landing strip was made hastily and in May 1948
the first aircraft landed in Leh. I was present in
Leh at that historic event when the famous Air
Commodore Mehar Singh and Gen Thimaya
landed. Soon reinforcements were flown in and
the situation was retrieved in the nick of time.
Ladakh was saved.
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The author at Leh landing strip Sept 1948
to get to the Kashmir valley were halted in
Gurez, Uri and Baramulla by now. Ladakh too
was under Indian control, where the Indians
started pushing back the hostile forces all the
way beyond along the Indus Valley. Thus the
Pakistani forces had only Zoji-La as the path left
to get to the Valley. They orchestrated concerted
attacks all along the Valley route leading to
Sonamarg, along the river Sindh. Several
bridges over this river were targeted and one
such battle was fought at the Wyil bridge on the
outskirts of Ganderbal (short of the small town
of Kangan). I was present at the bridge and have
reported first-hand on the skirmishes there,
as a war correspondent. The raiders were not
any “mujahideen” but regulars of the Pakistani
army dressed as raiders. Several who lay dead in
the fields beyond the bridge even had their army
ID cards with them.
For many months during the summer of 1948,
the Indian Army made efforts to dislodge and
push back the Pakistanis from the heights
around Zoji-La. Almost all the attempts yielded
no results. The commanders came to the
conclusion that if the enemy was not pushed out
of Zoji-La area before the winter set in, it would
become impossible to keep them from rolling
into the Kashmir valley after the snow melted
the next spring. They envisaged that if this did
happen then the whole of Ladakh would be cut
off from the Kashmir valley and perhaps be
lost forever. This was a very scary thought and
unacceptable to the country.
The stage was set for a deciding battle. It must
be put into perspective that by then the road
from Kargil to Dras and onwards to the Zoji-La
top – known as the Gumri basin – was under
the effective control of the Pakistani forces. In
May 1948 the first organised force of the Indian
army, the Patiala regiment, was ordered to go
to Sonamarg, Baltal and Zoji-La. This regiment
was later to be the most highly decorated as
they took part in several important battles. In
mid-May one such battle pushed the enemy
from Gumri towards Dras. This established
two objectives – the effective control of the
path on Zoji-La and re-establishing the lines
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