About eight years ago, on September 18, 2016, Uri witnessed one of the “deadliest” terror attacks when the terrorists belonging to Jaish-e-Mohammad, a banned terrorist group by countries like India, the United States and Australia, attacked the Brigade Headquarters of the India army.
The attack left 19 soldiers dead and several others injured. Indian army retaliated and avenged the attack by carrying out surgical strikes across the Line of Control, which has acted as a definite deterrent.
Much water has flown down the River Jhelum since then. The state of Jammu and Kashmir witnessed multiple events in history afterwards. On August 5, 2019, Article 370 was abrogated. The state was made into a union territory.
While most of the Kashmir valley had been severely affected by the militancy, Uri and surrounding areas mostly remained peaceful after the Jaish terror attack. Life appears as normal as anywhere in the rest of the country.
Geographically, the Uri assembly segment is on the country's northernmost tip along the Line of Control, with Pakistan-occupied Kashmir across the Jhelum River. Despite being literally the remotest constituency, the electioneering is in full swing here.
It is the first assembly election after the abrogation of Article 370. As the electioneering reaches its peak for the third and final stage on October 1, six candidates are trying their luck from here.
The contest, however, primarily appears to be between Sajad Shafi of the National Conference-Congress alliance and an independent candidate Taj Mohi Ud Din, who some splinter political groups are supporting.
Engineer Rashid has also fielded a candidate, Munir Khan from here, making it a triangular contest. In the 2024 General Elections, when Rashid won from the Baramulla parliamentary constituency, among the 15 of the 18 assembly segments falling in the parliamentary constituency, he led from the Uri segment also.
However, on the ground, his party, the Awami Ittehad Party does not seem to have any visible presence as compared to his parliamentary performance.
NC-Congress candidate, Sajad Shafi, is the son of the veteran National Conference leader and former minister Mohammad Shafi Uri, who has represented the constituency six times.
Taj Mohi Ud Din is a veteran Congress leader who has won from here twice. He has also served as a former minister in Jammu and Kashmir. When Ghulam Nabi Azad resigned from the Congress and formed his separate Democratic Azad Party, Taj went along with him. However, before the assembly elections, he resigned from the DPAP and decided to fight as an independent candidate.
Initially, Taj was supported by the People’s Democratic Party. But after the Apni Party leader Altaf Bukhari announced his support for Taj, the PDP withdrew its support to him and fielded its own candidate.
Bhukhari was among the prominent founding members of the PDP before he deserted the party and formed his own Apni Party. His critics are accusing him of being the BJP proxy, a tag he is finding very difficult to fight off.
And when he announced his support for Taj, it was enough for his former party to withdraw its support to Taj, lest it might have been seen as standing along with a “BJP proxy”.
National Conference leaders and candidates are raising the issues of restoration of statehood and Article 370. While the restoration of statehood is an issue, the majority of the electorate is indifferent to the abrogation of Article 370, as it has not changed anything for them. Much against the hype created by the NC and the PDP about the demographic threat to Kashmir, the people here do not seem to buy that idea. Instead, they are concerned about their livelihood and survival.
When Mufti Mohammad Sayeed became the Chief Minister he strongly advocated opening the “trade route” through Kaman Post. The “cross border” trade did start and it continued for some time. But after the relationship between India and Pakistan became strained owing to the terror attack, the “trade” whatever it was, stopped.
A full-fledged trade facilitation centre had been set up in the village Salamabad which falls in between the Uri town and Kaman post. The facilitation centre now remains deserted.
People here favour the resumption of trade along this route. But that is a tall order. Given Pakistan’s continuous and relentless support of militancy, the resumption of mutual trade as of now seems to be out of the question.
But “cross-LOC” trade is not something that is so dear to the local population. What they value most is how to improve their lives. Unemployment remains the major problem. Agriculture is the only source of income but not sufficient. The second option remains the government jobs, which again are quite scarce.
The elections provide them with some hope of having someone to listen to their grievances and problems. Assembly elections are being held in JK after ten years. The last assembly elections were held in 2014 and the assembly was dissolved in 2018.
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