In war & peace, Uri counts its losses, a few gains : The Tribune India

Join Whatsapp Channel

In war & peace, Uri counts its losses, a few gains

The general atmosphere in Uri is one of scare, as residents fear that any escalation between India and Pakistan will inflict heavy damage on them. The town has benefited a lot from bus and truck services started a few years ago for facilitating travel and trade between India and Pakistan.

In war & peace, Uri counts its losses, a few gains

The Uri market opened after two days of the militant attack on Sept 18. Photo: Mohammad Amin War



Ishfaq Tantry in Srinagar

A look at the placid Jhelum at Uri town, encompassed by 41 villages and inhabited by about a lakh residents, would prompt you to ask: could there be anything better than peace? Barring some spillover from Valley’s unrest post Burhan Wani’s killing in July, the town in north Kashmir’s Baramulla district has conducted itself well, as good as any other Indian border village would. Yet Uri can’t detach itself from an inherent scare. The oft-repeated, unanswered question is: can peace stretch to permanence, now that the country has lost 18 soldiers in a terror attack? Such a question turns the clock back to the 2003 ceasefire pact between India and Pakistan. The truce holds, as tenuously as the pendulum of time, between war, talk of war and peace.

“We fear escalation along the LoC. In the eventuality of a skirmish or war, the people of Uri would be the first victims. Only the border residents know what war or an escalation means,” says Iqbal Ahmad, a government employee and an Uri resident. “During my stay in Uri, I have realized that the livelihood of the residents living close to LoC depends on peace,” says Mohammad Shafi Lone, a senior bank official, who spent almost five years in the area, while working with J&K Bank.

Peace stakes

The residents talk of Muzaffarabad (PoK), of times the trade prospered, of how to remain in sync with lockdown-prone Valley, and of course, of how to keep good faith in the Army. A scribbled message on an Army post near a steel bridge just before Uri summarizes the sentiment: “Doubt Everybody, Leave Nobody, and Respect Everybody.” That’s sounds like a left-handed compliment to Uri’s topography: the edge of a valley surrounded by Line of Control (LoC) on three sides, sliced off by the Jhelum that gushes through the heart of the border town before entering Muzzaffarbad. Skirmishes between Indian and Pakistani forces have been occasional in the last over a decade and so have been infiltrations and militant attacks.

A few years back, Uri residents demanded opening of a “well-equipped trade centre” in the region, which would help them to reap benefits from India-Pakistan trade taking place via Muzaffarabad road link. India and Pakistan had decided to introduce a truck service on Srinagar-Muzaffarabad road in 2008, nearly three years after the historic bus service was launched on the same route. The Indian side had sent a list of 14 products to Pakistan for approval, out of which the authorities had selected Kashmiri carpets, saffron, rugs, shawls, fruits, flowers, silk products for trade purposes in Pakistan. 

The Uri people have benefited from the opening of the Srinagar-Muzaffarabad road, both in terms of travel and trade. Those having relations across the LoC in Muzaffarabad and other areas have been able to meet them through the Muzaffarabad bus service. The trade activities have also benefitted the locals in terms of employment generation, export of local produce like walnut across the LoC and the availability of cheaper Pakistani goods, says Mohsin Janwari, an engineer. As the cross-LoC trade is at present based on a barter system, people feel the real potential of this trade activity is yet to be realized.

Past & present

The garrison town has been one of the worst hit since the area was divided by the LoC, which before the Simla Agreement was known as Ceasefire Line. The line divided thousands of families. Then, there have been a spate of cross-border shelling, making the lives of residents hell, as hundreds were maimed. This came to a halt in November 2003.

The Srinagar-Muzaffarabad Road was developed first as a cart road by Dogra ruler of the erstwhile Jammu and Kashmir, Maharaja Pratap Singh. On the advice of British residents, the construction of the road began first between Kohala (now in Pakistan occupied Kashmir) and historic Baramulla town, which passes through Uri town, in 1881. Subsequently, the road, earlier known as Jhelum valley cart road, was opened for traffic in 1890.

Travel & hydel power

In normal times, the journey beyond the Baramulla town towards Uri and Kaman Post, where the Peace Bridge is located linking Srinagar and Muzaffarabad cities is mesmerizing. The road snakes through the Jhelum valley, a narrow gorge through which the river passes and leaves the main Kashmir Valley for its onward journey to Pakistan.

The road also overlooks the Lower Jhelum Hydel Project and the remnants of the now defunct historic Mohra Hydel Project, one of the oldest and first such power projects. Near Kaman post, travelers encounter the upcoming Uri-II Hydel Power project. All these projects highlight the hydel power potential of the Uri sector, which if harnessed can illuminate the region, even beyond the LoC.

Long before the Partition, Kashmiris would travel along this road, unhindered, with caravans of tongas and ikkas (horse and oxen-driven carts) trading famed fruit, carpets and other crafts of the Valley with other regions of the sub-continent.

With the extension of the Jhelum Valley cart road up to Srinagar between 1893-95   covering over 117km between the summer capital and Kaman post in Uri, trade and travel activities picked up on this strategic highway, with north Kashmir town of Baramulla, 55km from Srinagar, turning into a important trading town. Uri also gained from this development. 

Uri will see, hopefully, better days. “The country may forget the Uri episode, the PMs of two countries may shake hands again, but it is the common man who would suffer the most during hostilities,” says Mohsin Janwari, an engineer posted in the town.

Top News

Chief Judicial Magistrate's court in UP's Banda orders judicial inquiry into death of gangster-politician Mukhtar Ansari

UP court orders judicial probe into gangster-politician Mukhtar Ansari’s death, seeks report in a month

Ghazipur MP Afzal Ansari on Tuesday alleged that his brother...

‘Heart attack or poisoning’: The life and times of Mukhtar Ansari—crime and politics

‘Heart attack or poisoning’: The life and times of Mukhtar Ansari—crime and politics

Eastern parts of Uttar Pradesh are among the poorest regions...

CBI files chargesheet against 20 institutes, 105 individuals in Himachal Pradesh multi-crore scholarship scam

CBI files chargesheet against 20 institutes, 105 individuals in Himachal Pradesh multi-crore scholarship scam

22 educational institutions were on CBI radar in the scholar...

Mahagathbandhan announces LS seat-sharing for Bihar; RJD to contest 26, Congress 9

Mahagathbandhan announces Lok Sabha seat-sharing for Bihar; RJD to contest 26, Congress 9

High-decibel contest seems on the cards in Hajipur, where RJ...


Cities

View All