Chitral Scouts

Chitral Scouts
Urdu: چترال سکاوٹس
Pakol hat of the Chitral Scouts
Founded1903
Country Pakistan
BranchCivil Armed Forces
TypeParamilitary
RoleBorder patrol
Counterterrorism
Counterinsurgency
Special operations
Size7 wings
Part ofFrontier Corps Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (North)
Garrison/HQDrosh Cantonment
EngagementsIndo-Pakistani War of 1947[1]
Kargil War[2]
Commanders
CommandantColonel Sami Zaman Khan

The Chitral Scouts (CS) (Urdu: چترال سکاوٹس), also known as Chitral Levies, originally raised in 1903 as the militia of the princely state of Chitral, is now part of the Frontier Corps Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (North) of Pakistan.[3]: 116  They are recruited mostly from the Chitral and Kalash Valleys areas along the western borders and are led by officers from the Pakistan Army. The Frontier Corps of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (North) falls under the control of the Ministry of the Interior. Its headquarters is at Chitral town, and it is commanded by a Colonel of the Pakistan Army.

The regiment has a 2020/21 budget of Rs. 1.7 billion,[4] and is composed of seven battalion-sized wings, each headed by army officers with the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel or Major. Its role is to keep guard over Pakistan's western borders in peacetime and to assist the civil administration in maintaining law and order in the district of Chitral.

  1. ^ Jammu and Kashmir War, 1947-1948: Political and Military Perspective, by Kuldip Singh Bajwa, Har-Anand Publications, 2004, pp. 157-158.
  2. ^ Zar Alam Khan Rizakhail, Recruitment centre's shifting opposed, in Dawn News dated 25 September 2003, at archives.dawn.com
  3. ^ "The Gazette of Pakistan. Part III" (PDF). Government of Pakistan. 20 September 2019. Retrieved 11 December 2022.
  4. ^ "Federal Budget 2020–2021: Details of demands for grants and appropriations" (PDF). National Assembly of Pakistan. p. 2532. Retrieved 19 December 2022.