URI 2016: Time To Act

The attack on the Army brigade headquarters in Uri could just be the final straw for India to begin the terror endgame. Whatever the end result, one thing is certain: it will be the people of Kashmir who will bear the brunt of the escalating conflict.

- Tariq Bhat/Uri

At the dawn of September 12, Mumtaz Nazir woke up to say namaz, as was her routine. Her husband, Haji Nazir Mir, 72, a respected businessman and cousin of the noted politician Haji Jehangir Hussain, was still asleep. The elderly couple lived in a mansion close to the Army’s 93 Brigade at Alla Peer in Poonch district.

As Mumtaz opened the door to the kitchen, she saw a man in battle fatigues squatting on the floor with his eyes closed. He was clutching an AK-47. She tiptoed back to her room, locked it from inside and woke up Nazir. They were so afraid that they did not dare make noise and alert their domestic help, Tariq and his wife, Tarveen, who were sleeping downstairs.

After a while, Nazir plucked up the courage to phone his friend Krishan Singh. Singh alerted the police, who soon mobilised a team from the Special Operations Group. A contingent of the Army’s 9 Para also flew in. “After sometime, Tariq woke up and went to the kitchen,” said Nazir. “The militant charged at him and fired a shot. The bullet ricocheted off a pillar and hit Tariq in the leg, but he managed to return to his room.”

The gunshot forced the security forces to engage the militants. “I realised that a second militant was hiding in my house,” said Nazir. A heart patient, he wanted to have his medicine and some water, but he was trapped inside his room. “We started to recite Quranic verses,” he said.

The encounter raged on, and two other militants started firing from the mini secretariat that was under construction nearby. The Army called in a contingent of 39 Rashtriya Rifles, which specialised in counterinsurgency. It took 11 hours for the forces to neutralise the four militants and thwart their plan to attack the 93 Brigade headquarters at dawn. “The militants were wearing Army uniforms and were highly trained,” said Johny Williams, deputy inspectorgeneral of police, Poonch.