history of jammu and kashmir rifles

and did not allow walking on it. Under the guidance of some Dards accompanying the party, work was
started during the night on the construction of an ice bridge over the weak middle portion of the river
with logs obtained locally. By 0500 hours in the morning the logs had frozen in a crustation of ice of
sufficient thickness to permit the men to walk over it. This ice bridge had been constructed just below
the Wanko-la above which Wazir Ghulam Hassan had entrenched his army to bar the Dogra advance.
As soon as the bridge was ready Zorawar Singh ordered Basti Ram to cross over with his men and
hold the other bank of the river till he was able to bring up the main force. Basti Ram's men had,
however, been so benumbed and exhausted by their night's work that not many of them were in a fit
state to fight. About 10 of them had lost use of their hands and feet and 18 just could not carry
themselves through the deep snow and Basti Ram was able to lead only 12 men across to hold the
bridge-head. It goes to the heroism of Basti Ram and his 12 men that they held on to the other side of
the bridge against successive attacks by the Baltis, till joined by the main force. Thereafter, in the
battle of Thamo Khan that followed, the Dogras fell upon the Baltis with a vengeance killing 200 of
them and wounding 100. The retreating Baltis were then pursued up to Marwan and those that were
overtaken were slaughtered. About 1000 Baltis in all were believed to have been killed and 15 or so
wounded. The Dogras, however, had about 500 men, more or less, disabled due to loss of hands and
feet during the long exposure to the snow and frost. The heroes of the battle had indeed been Basti
Ram and party who had enabled the force to cross the Indus and they were suitably rewarded by
Zorawar Singh when the Dogras camped for the night at Marwan.
The next battle of any consequence between the Dogras and the Baltis was fought at Hamza Gond
near Kharmang. Here again the Baltis were routed and forced to withdraw further north. This battle
happened to be the last before the final battle that was to take place at Skardu. Zorawar Singh's
victories had caused dissensions among the Balti Rajas. Most of them now thought it prudent to
submit to the Dogras and retain their possession rather than oppose him and lose all. One by one
they began to desert Ahmed Shah and join the Dogras; some leading their contingents direct in the
service of the victors rather than putting up even a semblance of resistance. Zorawar Singh halted for
a few days at Kharmang to receive submissions of the chieftains and then advanced to Gol where he
was joined by the Ladakhi column as planned. Interestingly the Ladakhi column had reached Gol
without firing a single shot. True, that Ahmed Shah had despatched his Wazir Yostrung Karim to block
the Ladakhi advance at Khapalu but when the Raja of Khapalu declared himself for the Dogras,
Yostrung withdrew to Kuru and there delayed the Ladakhi advance for four days. However by the time
the Ladakhis could attack, the Dogra column had reached Parkuta, threatening Yostrung's rear.
Unnerved, Yostrung withdrew his Army to Gol and thence to Skardu.
The united Dogra-Ladakhi force now advanced from Gol towards Skardu. With nearly all other Rajas
of Baltistan having submitted to the Dogras, Raja Ahmed Shah and his Wazir Yostrung Karim were
left all by themselves in the defence of Skardu. They, therefore, had no alternative but to shut
themselves up in the Skardu fort, known for its invincibility. The strength of the fort lay in its location
which was on a lofty unassailable rock. It had only two gates of entry one on the East side which was
used for daily traffic and the other on the West from which a covered path descended to a spring, and
further down to the river, which was used for bringing up water. The main path leading to the fort on
the East was nanow, zigzag and with steep gradient. Besides, the entire length was effectively
covered by fire from positions in the fort. On the higher part of the rock was a smaller fort which
overlooked the main one.
On reaching Skardu the Dogras laid siege to the fort and waited for 15 days in the hope of forcing
the garrison to surrender. When even at the end of this period the defenders showed no signs of any
such intention, Zorawar Singh decided to take the fort by assault. However, as a frontal assault on the
main fort would have been suicidal he set about it through a tactical manoeuvre. On a dark night the
Dogras stole round from their position in front of the main fort to the South-Western corner of the rock
where stood the smaller fort. The Balti guards at the small fort were completely surprised and were all
killed before any one of them could raise an alarm. This fort was, therefore, captured with little or no
fight. In the morning the Dogras were firing from this dominating position into the main fort with great
advantage. The main fort thus became untenable and after two or three hours of a hopeless fight
Ahmed Shah surrendered. Through tactical acumen and boldness, the Dogras had thus achieved in a
day's action what would have, through the process of blockade and starvation perhaps taken many
months What is more the Dogras had suffered no casualties in the operation.
After the fall of Skardu those few Balti chiefs who had not yet made their submission to the Dogras
now hastened to do so. Only the Rajas of Rondu and Astore failed to present themselves before
Zorawar Singh. Consequently the Wazir sent a column comprising 1000 Dogras under Mirza Rasul
Beg and Mohammad Khan and a Balti army under the Chief of Kharmang, to force Raja Ali Khan of
Rondu into submission. There was, however, no requirement for the use of force as the Raja,
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