On October 22, 1947, the Pakistan army commenced ‘Operation Gulmarg’ – a covert military operation to seize Jammu and Kashmir in the garb of a tribal invasion. For this purpose, the Pakistan army used Pashtun tribals from the North West Frontier Province to create a force of 20 ‘lashkars’ (irregular militias), each with 1,000 fighters armed by the Pakistan army. This invasion force was commanded by Pakistan army regulars who too had disguised themselves as tribals.

Despite doing their best, the state forces of the then kingdom of J&K could not hold back the numerically far superior invasion force led by regular army men with combat experience of World War II. Since newly independent India lacked the capability to undertake timely airlifting the requisite force level to evict this invasion, a decision was taken in New Delhi to raise militias from volunteer locals to resist the invasion till the adequate buildup of forces.

Though the locals who joined these militias had no previous exposure to military training, they were a motivated lot and their performance........

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