Uri, Jammu and Kashmir

Uri
Town
Uri Location in Jammu and Kashmir, India Show map of Jammu and Kashmir Uri Uri (India) Show map of India
Coordinates: 34°5′10″N 74°2′0″E
Country	India
Union territory	Jammu and Kashmir
District	Baramulla
Government
• Type	Tehsil
Population  (2011)
• Total	9,366
Languages
• Official	Gujari, Pahari Kashmiri, Urdu, Hindi, Dogri, English[1][2]
Time zone	UTC+5:30 (IST)
PIN	193123
Telephone code	01956
Vehicle registration	JK 05
Sex ratio	1.13
Literacy	83%
Website	www.baramulla.nic.in

Jhelum River in Uri

Old market of Uri

Uri (Urdu pronunciation: [uː.ɽiː]) is a town and a tehsil in the Baramulla district, in the Indian union territory of Jammu and Kashmir.^[3] Uri is located on the left bank of the Jhelum River, about 10 kilometres (6.2 mi) east of the Line of Control with Pakistan.

Location

Uri is located at the entrance to the Kashmir Valley from the west, lying on the Jhelum Valley Road.^[4] Prior to the partition of Kashmir, the road linked Uri to Rawalpindi and Srinagar. Another important road linked Uri to Poonch via the Haji Pir pass.^[5]

Uri is at a distance of 76 miles (122 km) from Srinagar, 42 miles (68 km) from Muzaffarabad and 49 miles (79 km) from Poonch.^[5]

History

Hari Singh Nalwa (r. 1820–1823), the Sikh commander-administrator of Maharaja Ranjit Singh, built the fort of Uri.^[6][7]

Following the First Anglo-Sikh War (1845–1846) and the Treaty of Amritsar (1846), Raja Gulab Singh was proclaimed the Maharaja of Jammu and Kashmir, acquiring all the lands between the Ravi River and the Indus.^{[8]: 51–52} Uri became a tehsil in the Muzaffarabad district of the Kashmir province.^[9]

On 22 October 1947, the tribal invasion led to the fall of Muzaffarabad and Uri to the Pashtun tribes from Pakistan. The raiders then halted at Baramulla.^[10] Following the accession of the Maharaja to India on 26 October, India air lifted troops to the Kashmir Valley, who retook Baramulla and Uri by mid-November.^[11] The Indian government attached utmost importance to the defence of Uri.^[12] Muzaffarabad, on the other hand, came under Pakistani control and became the capital of Azad Kashmir. The tehsil of Uri was subsequently merged into the Baramulla district. In July, 2022 the SIA conducted raids on Uri because it was under militant control.^[13]

2016 attacks

Main article: 2016 Uri attack

At around 5:30 a.m. on 18 September, four terrorists attacked an Indian Army Brigade headquarters at Uri near the Line of Control. They are said to have lobbed 17 grenades in 3 minutes. A rear administrative base camp with tents caught fire and 13-14 army personnel were killed. A six-hour gun battle ensued, during which all four terrorists were killed. An additional 19-30 soldiers were reported to have been injured in the attack.^{[14][15][16][17][18]}

Demographics

Religion in Uri Town (2011)^[19]

  Islam (50.21%)

  Hinduism (39.47%)

  Sikhism (9.34%)

  Christianity (0.67%)

  Buddhism (0.02%)

  Jainism (0.01%)

  Not Stated (0.27%)

As of 2011, the town of Uri has a population of 9,366 of which 6,674 (71%) are males and 2,692 (29%) are females according to the report published by Census India in 2011.^[20] Uri has an average literacy rate of 88.46%, higher than the national average of 76%. Male literacy is 95.27%, and female literacy is 70.02%. Child sex ratio is approximately 851 as compared to the state average of 862 and the population of children under 6 years of age is 879 which is 9.39% of the total population.

Religion

Islam is followed by almost half of the population of Uri. Around 40% people are followers of Hinduism and 9% follow Sikhism.^[19]

References

1. "The Jammu and Kashmir Official Languages Act, 2020" (PDF). The Gazette of India. 27 September 2020. Retrieved 27 September 2020.
2. "Parliament passes JK Official Languages Bill, 2020". Rising Kashmir. 23 September 2020. Retrieved 23 September 2020.
3. "Administrative Setup in District Baramulla". Baramulla District. Retrieved 21 September 2016.
4. Dasgupta, War and Diplomacy in Kashmir 2014, p. 64.
5. K. D. Mani, Uri: The historical town, Daily Excelsior, 6 November 2017.
6. Bansal, Bobby Singh (2015), Remnants of the Sikh Empire: Historical Sikh Monuments in India & Pakistan, Hay House, Inc, p. 174, ISBN 978-93-84544-93-5
7. Lone, F. A. (2005), The Exploration Of Uri Sector: Kashmir Valley, Shipra Publications, p. 42, ISBN 978-81-7541-222-4
8. Singh, Bawa Satinder (1971), "Raja Gulab Singh's Role in the First Anglo-Sikh War", Modern Asian Studies, 5 (1): 35–59, doi:10.1017/s0026749x00002845, JSTOR 311654, S2CID 145500298
9. Snedden, Kashmir: The Unwritten History 2013.
10. Raghavan, War and Peace in Modern India 2010, p. 58.
11. Raghavan, War and Peace in Modern India 2010, p. 114.
12. Raghavan, War and Peace in Modern India 2010, p. 123.
13. "SIA raids multiple locations in Baramulla in Narc-militancy funding case". 19 July 2022.
14. Uri terror attack: 17 soldiers killed, 19 injured in strike on Army camp, Times of India, 18 September 2016.
15. "Tents set on fire, troops shot while coming out". The Hindu. 18 September 2016. Retrieved 18 September 2016.
16. Uri attack: An inside story of how it happened, India Today, 18 September 2016.
17. Sequence of the Uri attack & the plan of the terrorists, The Economic Times, 19 September 2016.
18. Uri Attack: Most of the 17 Soldiers Died in a Tent Fire, The Quint, 19 September 2016.
19. "Uri population". Census India 2011. Retrieved 3 September 2022.
20. "Census of India 2011: Data from the 2011 Census, including cities, villages and towns (Provisional)". Census of India.

Bibliography

• Dasgupta, C. (2014) [first published 2002], War and Diplomacy in Kashmir, 1947-48, SAGE Publications, ISBN 978-81-321-1795-7
• Raghavan, Srinath (2010), War and Peace in Modern India: A Strategic History of the Nehru Years, Palgrave Macmillan, ISBN 978-1-137-00737-7
• Snedden, Christopher (2013) [first published as The Untold Story of the People of Azad Kashmir, 2012], Kashmir: The Unwritten History, HarperCollins India, ISBN 978-9350298985

Further reading

• A town called Uri — How the September 18 attack may now change it, The Indian Express, 25 September 2016.