Uri attack

There was an attack by four heavily armed terrorists on 18 September 2016, near the town of Uri in the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir. It was reported as "the deadliest attack on security forces in Kashmir in two decades".[8] The terrorist group Jaish-e-Mohammed was involved in the planning and execution of the attack.[9] At the time of the attack, the Kashmir Valley region was a centre of unrest.[10][11]

Since 2015, the militants had increasingly taken to high-profile fidayeen attacks against the Indian security forces: in July 2015, three gunmen attacked a bus and police station in Gurdaspur and earlier in 2016, 4–6 gunmen attacked the Pathankot Air Force Station. Indian authorities blamed Jaish-e-Mohammad for the latter attack.^[12]

Also, since 8 July 2016, the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir has been undergoing continuous unrest following the killing of Burhan Wani, a militant leader popular with the youth in the state.^{[13][14][15][16]} The killing sparked violent protests against the Indian government in the valley,^[17][18] leading to the protests being described as the "largest anti-India protests" against Indian rule in recent years.

At around 5:30 a.m. on 18 September, four militants attacked an Indian Army brigade headquarters in Uri, near the Line of Control in a pre-dawn ambush. They were said to have lobbed 17 grenades in three minutes. As a rear administrative base camp with tents caught fire, 17 army personnel were killed during the attack. An additional 19-30 soldiers were reported to have been injured. A gun battle ensued lasting six hours, during which all the four militants were killed.^{[4][6][21][22][23]} Combing operations continued to flush out additional terrorists thought to be alive.^[8]

Most of the soldiers killed were from the 10th battalion, Dogra Regiment (10 Dogra) and 6th battalion, Bihar Regiment (6 Bihar).^[23] One of the injured soldiers succumbed to his injuries on 19 September at RR Hospital in New Delhi, followed by another soldier on 24 September, bringing the death toll to 19.^[2][3][24]

The casualties were primarily believed to have occurred as a result of non-fire retardant transition tents. This was the time of a troops shift, whereby troops from 6 Bihar were replacing troops from 10 Dogra. The incoming troops were housed in tents, which are normally avoided in sensitive areas around the LoC like Uri. The attackers snuck into the camp breaching heavy security and seemed to know exactly where to strike. Seven of the personnel killed were support staff, including cooks and barbers.