history of jammu and kashmir rifles

contributed towards this undignified withdrawal by the invaders. One, their reinforcements from Lhasa
were still on their way, and the other, they did not dare to fight the Dogras without the advantage of
winter. Be it as it may the Dogras did not pursue their enemy and instead decided to utilize the
opportunity for stamping out the remaining traces of rebellion before taking on the Tibetans. They had
sufficient time for both before winter set in. Consequently Wazir Ratnu detached a force, about 1000
strong, under Mian Jawahar Singh and sent it to Zanskar. Another 500 men under Mian Narainia were
despatched to Nubra and many other detachments big and small were similarly sent to various parts
of Ladakh against the rebels. This naturally thinned down the Dogra strength at Leh and Bakshi
Chhak Jot, the leader of the Ladakhi rebels, who had taken shelter in Rudok Fort on arrival of the
Dogra expeditionary force at Leh, thought the time to be most opportune for attack. He, therefore,
detailed his brother Achhan Jot to lead a contingent of 1000 rebels against the Dogras at Leh. As the
rebels advanced from Rudok, Wazir Ratnu pushed out a strong advance guard under Commandant
Sardul Singh and Munshi Ram ji Mal while he himself followed with his main force.
The advance guard made contact with the rebels at Gompa Chamrah, some 20 km from Leh, and
after some fighting forced the Ladakhis to take shelter in the Chamrah Fort. When the main force
under Wazir Ratnu and Diwan Hari Chand arrived at Gompa, the fort was besieged and a cannon
deployed against it. The walls of the fort crumbled under the gun fire and on the fourth day of the
siege the rebels sued for peace. Achhan Jot was taken prisoner and the main force marched back
with him to Leh, while Sardul Singh and Ram ji Mal were left behind with their contingents to guard the
other prisoners. Ultimately these prisoners were sent to Kashmir and produced before Raja Gulab
Singh who had by then moved up to Srinagar from Jammu to personally supervise the despatch of
men and material to Ladakh.
We have already seen how the Tibetans had quietly slipped away from Leh towards Rudok on the
appearance of the Dogra expeditionary force. When they reached Drangtse they were joined by the
5000 strong Tibetan troops that had been despatched from Lhasa to Leh as reinforcements. However,
in spite of being so reinforced, the Tibetans, overawed by Wazir Ratnu's force, decided against an
immediate offensive. Instead they decided to fall further back and take up a defensive position at
Lung-Wu, an area on the Tibetan frontier between Rudok and Pangong Lake. Here they sited their
defences in the lower part of a narrow valley on a naturally strong position which could not be easily
assaulted and waited.
Although the Tibetans had in fact vacated the Ladakhi territory and were now established just
across the border, their intention to re-enter the State during winter, when they would be able to fight
with advantage, was more or less clear. In any case a strong possibility existed and the Dogras could
not take the risk of leaving the enemy alone so close to the border. Wazir Ratnu, therefore, decided to
fight out a decisive engagement with the enemy to eliminate the chances of his invading Dogra
territory again. Accordingly during the last week of July, after the small operations against the rebels in
and around Leh had been completed, the Dogras, leaving behind about 100 men for the defence of
Leh, set forth to make contact with the Sino-Tibetan force entrenched at Lung-Wu. Commandant
Sardul Singh and Munshi Ram ji Mai were again detailed as the advanced guard while Diwan Hari
Chand brought up the main column.
By the time the main body reached Lung-Wu the advanced guard under Sardul Singh had already
made contact with the enemy resulting in some fighting. The initiative was first taken by the enemy
who attacked the Dogra advanced guard on the very first night of its arrival. The attack was, however,
repulsed and the enemy was forced to seek shelter in his defences. On the arrival of their main force
the Dogras went on to the offensive and charged the enemy fortifications with full force. The Dogras
had probably not realized the strength of the enemy defences and not only did their attack fail but they
also got pushed back right to the edge of the Pangong Lake. A lull then descended on the battlefield
for the next four days as both sides licked their wounds.
It was now abundantly clear that the enemy positions could not be taken by direct assault. So the
Dogras set about it through a stratagem. Secretly they erected a dam upstream, which, on 10 August
caused the enemy positions to be flooded, and forced them to abandon their fortifications. Once in the
open the Tibetans and the Chinese were no match to the Dogra swordsmen. After some resistance,
during which many of them got killed and several were taken prisoners, the Sino-Tibetan force
disintegrated and fled pell-mell. It was some consolation to the Dogras that a large number of
weapons of Zorawar Singh's Army were recovered by them from the Tibetans during this battle. The
Dogras suffered a total of about 230 killed which included two junior officers. Indeed their losses had
been great, but the sacrifice had been more than compensated by the glorious victory they had won.
Raja Gulab Singh must have heaved a sigh of relief when the news of the victory was conveyed to
him on his arrival at Leh just after the battle was over. Although the Tibetans were apprehensive of the
Dogras now invading Tibet, Gulab Singh had no such intention and being in a position of strength he
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