Uri () is a town and a

tehsil A tehsil (, also known as tahsil, taluka, or taluk) is a local unit of administrative division in some countries of South Asia. It is a subdistrict of the area within a district including the designated populated place that serves as its adminis ...

in the Baramulla district, in the

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), 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 and dependencies by population, second-most populous ...

n union territory of

Jammu and Kashmir Jammu and Kashmir may refer to: * Kashmir, the northernmost geographical region of the Indian subcontinent * Jammu and Kashmir (union territory), a region administered by India as a union territory * Jammu and Kashmir (state), a region administered ...

. 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 serv ...

with

Pakistan Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 24 ...

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 ( or ; Urdu, ) is a city in the Punjab province of Pakistan. It is the fourth largest city in Pakistan after Karachi, Lahore and Faisalabad, and third largest in Punjab after Lahore and Faisalabad. Rawalpindi is next to Pakistan ...

and

Srinagar Srinagar (English: , ) is the largest city and the summer capital of Jammu and Kashmir, India. It lies in the Kashmir Valley on the banks of the Jhelum River, a tributary of the Indus, and Dal and Anchar lakes. The city is known for its ...

. 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

Hari Singh Nalwa (r. 1820–1823), the

Sikh Sikhs ( or ; pa, ਸਿੱਖ, ' ) are people who adhere to Sikhism, Sikhism (Sikhi), a Monotheism, monotheistic religion that originated in the late 15th century in the Punjab region of the Indian subcontinent, based on the revelation of Gu ...

commander-administrator of Maharaja

Ranjit Singh Ranjit Singh (13 November 1780 – 27 June 1839), popularly known as Sher-e-Punjab or "Lion of Punjab", was the first Maharaja of the Sikh Empire, which ruled the northwest Indian subcontinent in the early half of the 19th century. He ...

, 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 in and around the Ferozepur district of Punjab. It resulted in defeat and partial subjugation of the Sikh empire and cession o ...

(1845–1846) and the

Treaty of Amritsar (1846) The Treaty of Amritsar, executed by the British East India Company and Raja Gulab Singh of Jammu after the First Anglo-Sikh War, established the princely state of Jammu and Kashmir under the suzerainty of the British Indian Empire. Description ...

, Raja

Gulab Singh Gulab Singh Jamwal (1792–1857) was the founder of Dogra dynasty and the first Maharaja of the princely state of Jammu and Kashmir, the largest princely state under the British Raj, which was created after the defeat of the Sikh Empire in t ...

was proclaimed the Maharaja of Jammu and Kashmir, acquiring all the lands between the

Ravi River The Ravi River () is a transboundary river crossing northwestern India and eastern Pakistan. It is one of five rivers associated with the Punjab region. Under the Indus Waters Treaty of 1960, the waters of the Ravi and two other rivers were ...

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 Western Tibet, flows northwest through the disputed region of Kashmir, ...

. Uri became a tehsil in the

Muzaffarabad district The Muzaffarabad District ( ur, ) is one of the 10 districts of Pakistan's dependent territory of Azad Kashmir. The district is located on the banks of the Jhelum and Neelum rivers and is very hilly. The total area of 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 Pashtuns (, , ; ps, پښتانه, ), also known as Pakhtuns or Pathans, are an Iranian ethnic group who are native to the geographic region of Pashtunistan in the present-day countries of Afghanistan and Pakistan. They were historically r ...

tribes from Pakistan. The raiders then halted at

Baramulla Baramulla (), also known as Varmul () in Kashmiri, is a town and a municipality in the Baramulla district in the Indian union territory of Jammu and Kashmir. It is also the administrative headquarters of the Baramulla district. It is on the ...

. 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 K ...

. 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 6:30 a.m. on 18 September, four terrorists attacked an

Indian Army The Indian Army is the Land warfare, land-based branch and the 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 is the Chief of Arm ...

Brigade

headquarters Headquarters (commonly referred to as HQ) denotes the location where most, if not all, of the important functions of an organization are coordinated. In the United States, the corporate headquarters represents the entity at the center or the to ...

at Uri near the

. They are said to have lobbed 17

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

s 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.

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

Islam is followed by almost half of the population of Uri. Around 40% people are followers of

Hinduism Hinduism () is an Indian religion or '' dharma'', a religious and universal order or way of life by which followers abide. As a religion, it is the world's third-largest, with over 1.2–1.35 billion followers, or 15–16% of the global p ...

and 9% follow

Sikhism Sikhism (), also known as Sikhi ( pa, ਸਿੱਖੀ ', , from pa, ਸਿੱਖ, lit=disciple', 'seeker', or 'learner, translit=Sikh, label=none),''Sikhism'' (commonly known as ''Sikhī'') originated from the word ''Sikh'', which comes fro ...

References

Bibliography

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