| Kharpocho Fort | |
| Location: | Skardu, Gilgit-Baltistan |
| Coordinates: | 35.3041°N 75.6396°W |
| Built: | 16th Century CE |
Skardu Fort or Kharpocho (Balti:; ur|قلعہ سکردو), meaning The king of Forts, is a fort in Skardu in the Gilgit-Baltistan region of Pakistan. Australian mountaineer and film maker Greg Child writes that the fort is "perched above the junction of the rivers" and overlooks the Rock of Skardu.[1]
The fort was built by king Ali Sher Khan Anchan at the end of the sixteenth century.[2] During his invasion of Baltistan in 1840, the Dogra general Zorawar Singh stormed it and razed it to the ground.[3] [4]
Zorawar Singh had another fort built on level ground next to the Kharpocho hill. The fort remained till the First Kashmir War in 1947, when the local Pakistan aligned Gilgit Scouts laid a siege to it fighting against the Delhi aligned Jammu and Kashmir State Forces under the command of Lt. Col. Sher Jung Thapa. Thapa eventually surrendered after running out of rations.[5] [6] [7]