and Himachal Pradesh), the force had people hailing from a greater mix of ethnic, religious and caste backgrounds than was the norm in the Indian Army. They did some useful work defending villages from attacks during partition, and as a reward, were given a more permanent character as the East Punjab Frontier Scouts in 1948. They served along the border with Pakistan as border guards, and were regarded as a useful adjunct of the Punjab Armed Police. The unit was redesignated the 1st, 2nd and 3rd Battalions of the Border Scouts in 1951, with recruitment from different North Indian communities. In 1956, the decision to convert this force into Machine-Gun Regiments was taken, and the three battalions were merged with the Mahar Regiment, the only Indian Machine Gun Regiment in existence at the time. They joined the Regiment as the 4th, 5th and 6th Battalions of the Mahar Regiment, and it is to these units that the Regiment traces its mixed-class composition. The three Battalions style themselves battalions of the Mahar Regiment (Borders) even today. Operation Pawan Late on 25 November 1987, when a column of the Mahar Regiment under Major Ramaswamy Parameswaran (8 Mahar) was returning from a search operation in Sri Lanka, it was ambushed by a group of militants armed with five rifles. In response, Parameswaran encircled the militants from the rear and charged into them, taking them completely surprise. In the ensuing hand-to-hand combat, a militant shot Parameswaran in the chest. Undaunted, he snatched the rifle from the militant and shot him dead. Gravely wounded, he continued to give orders and inspired his command until he died. Five militants were killed and three rifles and two rocket launchers were recovered and the ambush was cleared. Parameswaran was posthumously awarded the Param Vir Chakra, India's highest military decoration, for his bravery. Composition Battalions: 1st Battalion 2nd Battalion 3rd Battalion 4th Battalion (Borders) 5th Battalion (Borders) 6th Battalion (Borders) 7th Battalion 8th Battalion (Param Vir Chakra) 9th Battalion 10th Battalion 11th Battalion 12th Battalion 13th Battalion 14th Battalion (formerly 31st Mahar) & (UN Mission 2017 to 2018) 15th Battalion (formerly 32nd Mahar) 17th Battalion 18th Battalion 19th Battalion 20th Battalion 21st Battalion 22nd Battalion Former battalions 25th Battalion (disbanded 1946). 16th Battalion (formerly 8th Parachute Regiment) (converted to 12th Mechanised Infantry in 1981) Allied units 108th Infantry Battalion, Territorial Army (Sagar,Madhya Pradesh) 115th Infantry Battalion, Territorial Army (based