history of jammu and kashmir rifles

able to set up a strong breastwork all around the fort which was gradually moved forward till it reached
right up to its walls. The siege of the fort had lasted nearly 15 days when Lala Gandamal, the Kardar
of Mirpur, made the first assault on the tower covering the water source and destroyed it. With the
water source of the garrison cut and the main assault about to be launched Rae Dhanpat hastened to
surrender.
The taking of the Mangla fort had been a great victory for Diwan Hari Chand and he was duly
honoured and rewarded by Raja Gulab Singh. Other Dogra officers who had contributed towards this
victory were Major Bhag Singh, Jemadar Ram Singh, Lala Ganda Mal and Bakshi Nihal Singh.
Hazura Singh Thanadar and Murtaza Khan Malkana were responsible for the accurate artillery fire
that actually broke the resistance of the defenders.
Mutiny in Kashmir18
Just a few months after the accession of Maharaja Sher Singh, the Lahore troops stationed in
Kashmir mutinied and murdered Mian Singh, the Governor. Thereupon Gulab Singh was ordered to
proceed to Kashmir with a body of 5000 troops (nominally under the command of the boy Prince
Pratap Singh) and deal with the mutineers. On reaching Srinagar Gulab Singh opened negotiations
with the mutineers when they showed their inclination to surrender before him. But hardly had the
negotiations started when the mutineers launched a simultaneous attack on four of Gulab Singh's
battalions. The treacherous attack took the Durbar troops by surprise but they soon rallied and forced
the attackers to flee. By then, however, Gulab Singh had suffered nearly 230 men killed. The main
battle with the mutineers was then fought on the Dhood Ganga. In the hand to hand fighting that
ensued, though the Raja lost another 500 of his men, he was able to finally rout the mutineers who
now fled towards the Pir Panjal Pass. Gulab Singh had anticipated that the fugitives would try and
escape to the plains over the Pir Panjal and had, therefore, positioned some troops under Mian
Jawahar Singh (another son of Raja Dhyan Singh) at the Pass for intercepting them. Most of the
mutineers were thus either killed or apprehended. Mohiud-din was then appointed the Governor of
Kashmir and Raja Gulab Singh marched his troops to Hazara where another operational task awaited
him. The significance of this action in Kashmir lay in the fact that at the end of it Gulab Singh was able
to install, as the Governor of Kashmir a man who was favourably disposed towards him and thus not
likely to create obstructions either in his consolidation of conquered territories or in the new conquests
that he was about to undertake.
Dogra Invasion of Western Tibet19
In order to restrict Maharaja Ranjit Singh's territorial ambitions, the British had taken a number
of steps, starting with the Treaty of Amritsar in 1809 which, in the name of 'perpetual amity' between
the two powers, prevented Ranjit Singh from acquiring control over the Cis Sutlej states, by fixing river
Sutlej as the permanent boundary between the territory of the Maharaja of Punjab and that of the East
India Company. In 1816 with the occupation of Kumaon, Garhwal and Simla Hill States under the
Treaty of Sagauli, not only had the British blocked any attempt on the part of Maharaja Ranjit Singh to
advance in this direction but, in the act, had also placed a wedge between the Lahore Kingdom and
the Hindu state of Nepal to prevent their alignment for common territorial ambitions in that direction.
Subsequently in 1831 the British established a protectorate of the Amirs of Sind to limit Ranjit Singh's
ambitions in that direction and finally through the Tripartite Treaty in June 1838 the ring round Punjab
was more or less complete. The only direction in which the Sikh Kingdom had been allowed to expand
was towards Ladakh and Baltistan and if there was any chance of further expansion it was in this
direction alone. The British factor apart, there appeared to have been complete power vacuum in
regions beyond Ladakh and Baltistan which in fact, by itself, was temptation enough for launching
another campaign in this direction.
Of the two regions - Yarkand and Western Tibet - which were available to Gulab Singh for attack,
the former appears to have been his target initially. Some internal disorders in the Chinese territory of
Yarkand seem to have encouraged the Jammu Raja to advance in this direction. In the seizure of
Punjab opium by the authorities of that country the Raja had a valid excuse for the invasion. As a
prelude Zorawar Singh, the Dogra administrator of Ladakh, called upon the Chinese Government of
Yarkand to acknowledge supremacy of the Sikh Government of Lahore. The prospect of a Dogra
advance on Yarkand alarmed the British, who were then engaged in negotiations with the Chinese to
end the opium war. There was bound to be trouble during the negotiations if they allowed their ally to
act against China, as was being planned. The British, therefore, acted promptly and their agent at
Lahore got Maharaja Sher Singh to ask his vassal Raja to abandon his designs on Yarkand.
Their advance into Yarkand having been forestalled, the Dogras now turned towards Western Tibet.
Various reasons have been suggested by historians for the Dogras picking on Western Tibet as their
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