Excerpt taken from "The Encyclopedia of Land Warfare in the 20th Century", Part 5, Asian Wars of Imperial Succession, Brigadier Shelford Bidwell, Pages 164-173, Leisure Books, Salamander Books Ltd 1977, 27 Old Gloucester St, London WC1N 3AF, UK

The Pakistanis, rather than use their regular forces, sent in some 4,000 (20,000 according to some) of those famous warriors who had kept the British busy for so long on the North-West Frontier, Mahsud, Wazir and Afridi tribesmen, bred to carry arms from adolescence and unsurpassed in the minor tactics of mountain warfare. It was hoped that these Pathan lashkars (little tribal armies made up of families, villages and clans) would sweep away the feeble Kashmir state forces, seize the capital Srinagar and its airfield, and so trigger off a general rising among the Kashmiri Moslems and, with luck, set up a government ready to accede to Pakistan before the Indians could intervene. The Pakistanis correctly appreciated that any Indian counterattack must be by air in the absence of any routes from the south-east or east fit to take wheeled transport. It was a gamble that might just have come off 30 or 40 years before, but the tribesmen, good fighters as they were, lacked discipline and central direction, were armed only with rifles, and were without any form of tactical communication They were. moreover,pitted against a highly competent Indian staff wielding a well-tempered fighting machine. All the same, the lashkurs had only to continue their initial rush, which began by tearing down the road to Srinagar in their overloaded civilian lorries until they hit a roadblock, whereupon they leapt out, scrambled up the hills on either side in their inimitable fashion to double-outflank and clinch the manoeuvre with a ferocious charge, fighting-knife and rifle in hand, to repeat the process at the next check. This brought them to within four miles of the capital and its vital airfield, but they bad wasted 48 precious hours. They had paused for two days of terror in the little town of Baramula 30 miles back, massacring the non-Moslems and looting - some of the tribesmen in their traditional fashion went off home with what they could carry and as many girls as they could kidnap - and ihe delay was just enough for the Indians to fly in a battalion. The 1st Sikhs were roughly handled and lost their commanding officer, but the Sikhs are ancient enemies of the Pathans. They held the road doggedly and the Pakistani chance of taking Kashmir by coup de main was lost for good.