After the Partition of India, the Gilgit Scouts joined with the forces of the Pakistan Army in attacks against forces of the erstwhile princely state during the First Kashmir War. According to British Major William Brown, one-time commanding officer, there was a secret plan among the Gilgit Scouts to set up a "Republic of Gilgit-Astor(e)" when they ousted the armed forces of the Maharajah of Kashmir on November 1, 1947, but on November 2, the Pakistani flag was raised in Gilgit.[4] After conclusion of the war, the Gilgit Scouts operated as a paramilitary force in the Northern Areas, until 1975, when it became amalgamated into the Northern Light Infantry Regiment.
About Islamic Republic of Gilgit 1947
In August 1947, the Governor-General of the Union of India, Lord Mountbatten of Burma, negotiated with the Maharaja of Kashmir, Hari Singh, the accession of his domain to the Union of India, that included the Northern Area, known commonly as Gilgit-Baltistan, which were assigned by the British only recently to the Maharaja of Kashmir. The local population, overwhelmingly Muslim, strongly opposed such a move. Contrary to the policies of the former Viceroy of British India (now the GG of the newly independent Dominion of India), two British officers of the Gilgit Scouts were playing a strange game supportive to the pro-Pakistani sentiments of the local population and troops under their command. They were Maj. William Alexander Brown and Capt. Mathieson. Maj.Brown, faced with the advance of Swat and Chitral troops on Gilgit, and unsure of the loyalty of his Gilgit Scout in stopping the invasion bent on the massacring the Hindus (Dogra) officials and soldiers, tried to persuade the Kashmiri-appointed local governor, Brig.Ghansar Singh to hold the referendum to decide the future belonging of the Gilgit-Baltistan area. When the governor refused, Maj.Brown got him arrested and placed into protective custody together with other Dogra officers and soldiers. Thus, Maj.Brown became instrumental in frustrating attempts of Mountbatten to hand the entire Northern Area, as part of the State of Jammu and Kashmir, to India and helped to fulfill the aspiration of local Muslims to join Pakistan rather.
On November 1,1947 the Islamic Republic of Gilgit was proclaimed with Raja Shah Rais Khan, (member of the local ruling dynasty) as its president. The flag of the new republic was raised over the governor's mansion and the new government claimed the area of Gilgit-Baltistan, several princely states, Kargil and Ladakh as its territory. with the aim of joining the Dominion of Pakistan. The Republic came to an end on November 16,1947 with the arrival of the Pakistani Agent, Sardar Mohammad Alam, who took the area into Pakistani possession. The war continued into 1948 with Pakistan holding to all of Northern Area and chunk of the State of Jammu and Kashmir known as Azad Kashmir. Maj.Brown's role in securing the area for Pakistan was finally acknowledged by President Parvez Musharaf by bestowing posthumously the title Sitara-e- Pakistan in 1994, received by his widow, who also brought from Scotland many documents untangling the complicated history of the events of 1947.
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