Uri () is a town and a

tehsil A tehsil (, also known as tahsil, taluk, or taluka () is a local unit of administrative division in India and Pakistan. It is a subdistrict of the area within a Zila (country subdivision), district including the designated populated place that ser ...

in the Baramulla district, in the

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

union territory Among the states and union territories of India, a Union Territory (UT) is a region that is directly governed by the Government of India, central government of India, as opposed to the states, which have their own State governments of India, s ...

of Jammu and Kashmir. Uri is located on the left bank of the Jhelum River, about east of the

Line of Control The Line of Control (LoC) is a military control line between the Indian and Pakistanicontrolled parts of the former princely state of Jammu and Kashmir—a line which does not constitute a legally recognized international boundary, but ser ...

with

Pakistan Pakistan, officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of over 241.5 million, having the Islam by country# ...

Location

Uri is located at the entrance to the Kashmir Valley from the west, lying on the Jhelum Valley Road. Prior to the partition of Kashmir, the road linked Uri to

Rawalpindi Rawalpindi is the List of cities in Punjab, Pakistan by population, third-largest city in the Administrative units of Pakistan, Pakistani province of Punjab, Pakistan, Punjab. It is a commercial and industrial hub, being the list of cities in P ...

and

Srinagar Srinagar (; ) is a city in Indian-administered Jammu and Kashmir in the disputed Kashmir region.The application of the term "administered" to the various regions of Kashmir and a mention of the Kashmir dispute is supported by the tertiary ...

. Another important road linked Uri to Poonch via the Haji Pir pass.K. D. Mani
Uri: The historical town
Daily Excelsior, 6 November 2017. Uri is at a distance of from Srinagar, from Muzaffarabad and from Poonch.

History

During the reign of the Afghans over Kashmir, the Afghan governor Karimdad Khan dispatched his commander, Tar Quli Khan, to lead a military expedition aimed at stopping the Pahari chieftain Mahmud Khan of Muzaffarabad. To stop this campaign, Fath Khan, a Pahari chieftain from Kathai, Uri was enlisted to lead the resisting force. Fath Khan had secretly aligned with the local Pahari forces and deliberately led the Afghan detachment into a well-planned ambush. Fath Khan led Tar Quli Khan and his army into a narrow defile, where they were ambushed and stripped of all their weapons and equipment. Caught completely by surprise, the Afghan soldiers attempted to flee but were overwhelmed and quickly overrun. Many fled in disarray as the ambush proved devastating. Tar Quli Khan was later executed.

Hari Singh Nalwa Hari Singh Nalwa (29 April 1791 – 30 April 1837) was the commander-in-chief of the Sikh Khalsa Army, Sikh Khalsa Fauj, the army of the Sikh Empire. He is known for his role in the conquests of Kasur, Sialkot, Attock, Multan, Kashmir, Peshaw ...

(r. 1820–1823), the

Sikh Sikhs (singular Sikh: or ; , ) are an ethnoreligious group who adhere to Sikhism, a religion that originated in the late 15th century in the Punjab region of the Indian subcontinent, based on the revelation of Guru Nanak. The term ''Si ...

commander-administrator of Maharaja

Ranjit Singh Ranjit Singh (13 November 1780 – 27 June 1839) was the founder and first maharaja of the Sikh Empire, in the northwest Indian subcontinent, ruling from 1801 until his death in 1839. Born to Maha Singh, the leader of the Sukerchakia M ...

, built the fort of Uri. Following the

First Anglo-Sikh War The First Anglo-Sikh War was fought between the Sikh Empire and the British East India Company in 1845 and 1846 around the Firozpur district of Punjab. It resulted in the defeat and partial subjugation of the Sikh empire and cession of Jammu ...

(1845–1846) and the Treaty of Amritsar (1846), Raja Gulab Singh was proclaimed the

Maharaja of Jammu and Kashmir The Dogra dynasty of Dogras, Dogra Rajput, Rajputs from the Shivalik hills created Jammu and Kashmir (princely state), Jammu and Kashmir through the treaties with the East India Company following the First Anglo-Sikh war. Events led the Sikh E ...

, acquiring all the lands between the

Ravi River The Ravi River is a transboundary river in South Asia, flowing through northwestern India and eastern Pakistan, and is one of five major rivers of the Punjab region. Under the Indus Waters Treaty of 1960, the waters of the Ravi and two oth ...

and the

Indus The Indus ( ) is a transboundary river of Asia and a trans- Himalayan river of South and Central Asia. The river rises in mountain springs northeast of Mount Kailash in the Western Tibet region of China, flows northwest through the dis ...

. Uri became a tehsil in the Muzaffarabad district of the Kashmir province. 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. 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. The Indian government attached utmost importance to the defence of Uri. Muzaffarabad, on the other hand, came under Pakistani control and became the capital of

Azad Kashmir Azad Jammu and Kashmir (), abbreviated as AJK and colloquially referred to as simply Azad Kashmir ( ), is a region administered by Pakistan as a nominally self-governing entitySee: * * * and constituting the western portion of the larger ...

. 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.

2016 attacks

At around 5:30 a.m. on 18 September, four terrorists attacked an

Indian Army The Indian Army (IA) (ISO 15919, ISO: ) is the Land warfare, land-based branch and largest component of the Indian Armed Forces. The President of India is the Commander-in-Chief, Supreme Commander of the Indian Army, and its professional head ...

Brigade

headquarters Headquarters (often referred to as HQ) notes the location where most or all of the important functions of an organization are coordinated. The term is used in a wide variety of situations, including private sector corporations, non-profits, mil ...

at Uri near the

. They are said to have lobbed 17

grenade A grenade is a small explosive weapon typically thrown by hand (also called hand grenade), but can also refer to a Shell (projectile), shell (explosive projectile) shot from the muzzle of a rifle (as a rifle grenade) or a grenade launcher. A mod ...

s in 3 minutes. A rear administrative base camp with tents caught fire and 17 army personnel were killed. A six-hour gun battle ensued, during which all four terrorists were killed. An additional 19-30 soldiers were reportedly injured in the attack.

Demographics

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. 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

As of 2011, Islam is followed by slightly more than half (50.21%) the population of Uri. 39.47% follow

Hinduism Hinduism () is an Hypernymy and hyponymy, umbrella term for a range of Indian religions, Indian List of religions and spiritual traditions#Indian religions, religious and spiritual traditions (Sampradaya, ''sampradaya''s) that are unified ...

References

Bibliography

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