Why militants chose fortified Uri for attack

SRINAGAR: The terror attack in Uri on Friday looks like an attempt by terrorists to make their presence felt in an area considered secure with a large Army base. The bowl-shaped town of Uri had remained unscathed even during the peak of militancy in 1990 as the area was used by home-grown militants to infiltrate back into the state from Pakistan after training and they wanted to keep it away from the radar of security forces.

Many Uri residents have relatives across the LoC, barely 18km away. While the Army presence was always there, prior to 1990 troops were fairly liberal and even tolerated Uri locals climbing mountains or crossing the Jhelum river to meet their relatives across LoC.

However, after very high inflow of militants from PoK in 1991, troops tightened security in the area and made the border virtually impregnable. A Brigade camp was set up in Uri which kept a constant vigil on travellers from Srinagar as well. Uri and its surrounding areas shot into prominence after opening of the Srinagar-Muzaffarabad route in April 2005.

On Nov 3, there were reports that JuD's Hafeez Saeed had shifted operational base to an LeT training camp in Muzaffarabad (PoK) to disrupt assembly polls. Muzaffarabad is about 60km from Uri as the crow flies.