76th Punjabis The 76th Punjabis was an infantry regiment of the British Indian Army . It was raised by Captain Thomas Lane at Trichonopoly on 16 December 1776 , as the 16th Carnatic Battalion . It was designated as the 76th Punjabis in 1903 and became the 3rd Battalion 1st Punjab Regiment in 1922 . In 1947 , it was allocated to the Pakistan Army , where it continues to exist as 3rd Battalion The Punjab Regiment . Early History . The regiment had its antecedents in the old Madras Army of the British East India Company , which was largely responsible for the British conquest of south and central India . It was raised by Captain Thomas Lane at Trichonopoly on 16 December 1776 , as the 16th Carnatic Battalion . The regiment ' s first action was in 1778 , when it took part in the capture of the French enclave of Pondicherry . During the next twenty years , the regiment was engaged in constant warfare against the Sultans of Mysore , fighting in the Battles of Pollilur , Porto Novo , Sholinghur and Seringapatam . In the nineteenth century , it fought in the First and Third Anglo - Burmese War s . In 1903 , the regiment , now designated as the 16th Madras Infantry , was reconstituted with Punjabi Muslims , Sikhs and Hindu Jat s . As a result of the reforms brought about in the Indian Army by Lord Kitchener , all Madras units had 60 added to their numbers , and the regiment ' s designation was changed to 76th Punjabis . On the outbreak of the First World War in 1914 , the 76th Punjabis were dispatched to Egypt to protect the Suez Canal . In March 1915 , they arrived in Mesopotamia to join the 12th Indian Division . After taking part in the Battle of Shaiba , where the Turkish counter - attack was repulsed , the regiment participated in the operations in Persia n Arabistan . In June and July , the 76th Punjabis took part in the operations along the River Euphrates , which led to the capture of Nasiriyah . In August , the regiment joined Major General Charles Townshend ' s 6th Indian Division in its advance towards Baghdad . It fought in the Battle of Ctesiphon and then retired towards Kut al Amara , where it was besieged by the Turks with the rest of the 6th Division . The regiment resolutely resisted all Turkish attempts to overwhelm the defences of Kut al Amara , suffering 171 casualties during the 150 days long siege . But after the failure of the British to relieve them , the starving garrison of Kut was forced to surrender on 29 April 1916 . The 76th Punjabis became prisoners of war and suffered terrible privations during their long captivity . Out of the 341 officers men present with the regiment at the commencement of the siege in December 1915 , 72 died during the siege , while another 101 died during the captivity . The 76th Punjabis were re - formed on 1 January 1917 and moved to Chaman on the North West Frontier . On 16 October 1917 , the regiment raised a second battalion at Nasirabad . In December 1918 , 208 Kut prisoners returned to the battalion after their release from Turkish captivity . The 1st Battalion 76th Punjabis took part in the Third Afghan War of 1919 , while the 2nd Battalion served in Waziristan during 1919 - 20 . It was disbanded in 1922 . Subsequent History . In 1922 , the 76th Punjabis were grouped with the 62nd , 66th , 82nd and 84th Punjabis , and the 1st Brahmans to form the 1st Punjab Regiment , and were redesignated as 3rd Battalion 1st Punjab Regiment . On the outbreak of the Second World War , 3 / 1st Punjab was dispatched to North Africa in September 1939 . In December 1940 , the battalion fought in the Battle of Sidi Barani against the invading Italians . It then fought in Eritrea and Syria , before returning to North Africa to take part in a gallant attack on Libyan Omar on 30 November 1941 . The battalion arrived in Italy in March 1944 , where it remained engaged in intense fighting until the final Allied victory in 1945 . The battalion suffered 1651 casualties during the war , including four Commanding Officers , who fell leading their men in battle . In 1947 , the 1st Punjab Regiment was allocated to Pakistan Army . In 1956 , it was merged with the 14th , 15th and 16th Punjab Regiment s to form one large Punjab Regiment , and 3 / 1st Punjab was redesignated as 3 Punjab . During the 1965 Indo - Pakistan War , the battalion fought at Jassar in the Sialkot Sector , while in the 1971 war , it took part in capture of the Indian fortress of Qaisar - i - Hind in the Hussainiwala Sector .