Place:Kargil, Jammu and Kashmir, India

the text in this section is copied from an article in Wikipedia

Kargil district is one of the two districts of Ladakh, a region administered by India as a union territory. It spans the entire length of Ladakh in the north–south direction, with Jammu and Kashmir to the west, the Leh district to the east, the Pakistan-administered region of Gilgit–Baltistan to the north and Himachal Pradesh to the south. Encompassing two historical regions known as Purig and Zanskar, the district lies to the northwest of the Great Himalayan range and encompasses the majority of the Zanskar Range. Its population inhabits the river valleys of the Dras, Suru, Kartse, Wakha, and Zanskar rivers.

The district was created in 1979 by carving it out of the Leh district. In 2003, Kargil was granted a Ladakh Autonomous Hill Development Council (LAHDC).

As of the 2011 Census of India, the Kargil district population is 77% Muslim, of which 65% follow Shia Islam. Buddhism and Hinduism represent 14.5% and 8% of the local population respectively.

In August 2019 the Parliament of India passed an act that contains provisions to make Kargil a district of the new union territory of Ladakh, which was formed 31 October 2019. The town of Kargil is designated as a joint capital of the union territory, along with Leh. Kargil is a mostly visited place for Indian as well as foreign tourists during summer.

History

the text in this section is copied from an article in Wikipedia

Princely State of Jammu and Kashmir

In 1822, Raja Gulab Singh of the Dogra dynasty was anointed as the Raja of Jammu by the Sikh emperor Ranjit Singh. In 1834, Gulab Singh sent his general Zorawar Singh Kahluria to conquer the territory between Jammu and the Tibetan border. Marching from Kishtwar, Zorawar Singh reached Purig and defeated the Bhotia leader Mangal at Sankoo in August. Kartse, the then capital of Purig, fell into Zorawar Singh's hands, who built a fort there before advancing towards Leh. Tshed-Pal, the Gyalpo of Leh, was defeated and reinstalled as a subsidiary of the Dogras. Meanwhile, the chief of Sod rebelled and Zorawar Singh returned to reassert his authority. Zanskar offered submission subsequently.

The Purigis rebelled repeatedly, instigated by the Sikh governor Mihan Singh of Kashmir. They also received support from Ahmed Shah of Baltistan. Zorawar Singh returned in 1839 to quell the rebellion and conquered Baltistan as well.

Following the First Anglo-Sikh War and the Treaty of Amritsar (1846), Gulab Singh was made an independent Maharaja of Jammu and Kashmir. The princely state of Jammu and Kashmir, as it eventually came to be called, was organised into two large provinces, Jammu and Kashmir, and two frontier ilaqas, Ladakh and Gilgit Baltistan

Ladakh was a wazarat (district) with a governor called wazir-e-wazarat. It had three tehsils: Leh, Kargil and Skardu. Initially, the Wazir used to spend four months each at Leh, Kargil and Skardu. But shifting the entire staff so often proved too exhausting and, so, the shifting was eventually limited to Leh and Skardu. The city of Kargil always had a tehsil headquarters. It was a key centre, being equidistant from Srinagar, Leh and Skardu. Zanskar, which was once part of the Kishtwar district was merged into the Kargil tehsil.

Post 1947

During the Indo-Pakistani War of 1947, there were pitched battles fought around Kargil, which saw the entire area including Drass and Zoji La Pass initially coming under Pakistan control before most of it being reclaimed by Indian troops by November 1948. It remained with India after the ceasefire. It again saw some action in the Second Kashmir War with India managing to wrest back the remainder of the Kargil area twice. The first capture was 17 May 1965, when skirmishes broke out in Rann of Kutch, and India retaliated in the Kashmir sector.^[1]

However, this had to be returned as per UNMOGIP treatise. On 15 August, the same year Kargil fell to Indian forces, though it was once again returned as part of the Tashkent Agreement.^[1] However, in the Indo-Pakistani War of 1971 the entire Kargil region including key posts was captured by Indian troops under leadership of Col. Chewang Rinchen.

To straighten the line of control in the area, the Indian Army launched night attacks when the ground temperatures sank to below −17 °C and about 15 enemy posts located at height of 16,000 feet and more were captured. After Pakistan forces lost the war and agreed to the Shimla Agreement, Kargil and other strategic areas nearby remained with India. Kargil became a separate district in the Ladakh region during the year 1979 when it was bifurcated from the Leh district.

In the spring of 1999, under a covert plan of the then Army Chief Pervez Musharraf, armed infiltrators from Pakistan, aided by the Pakistani army, occupied vacant high posts in the Kargil and Drass regions. The result was a limited scale conflict (Kargil War) between the two nuclear equipped nations that ended with India regaining the Kargil region through military power and diplomatic pressure.

In August 2019 the Parliament of India passed an act that contains provisions to make Kargil a district of the new union territory of Ladakh, which was to be formed 31 October 2019.^[2]

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