Separatist leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani has sought to incapacitate the government’s plan to reopen schools and colleges in the Kashmir Valley by issuing a diktat that his call for shutdowns applies to educational institutions as well.
The octogenarian leader said: “By showing false sympathy for our children, India is only trying to deceive us.” In a threatening tone, he said that no school will be opened on Monday and urged the parents to extend their support and cooperation to him by not sending their children to school on the days he has called for total shutdowns in the Valley as per a fresh calendar of strikes and protests beginning on Monday itself.
This goes contrary to his earlier pledge that next calendar of protests and strikes as part of the “Quit Jammu and Kashmir” campaign being spearheaded by the Hurriyat Conference faction headed by him would be planned in such a manner that students appearing in different examinations do not face any inconvenience.
Curfew was lifted for varied durations in a phased manner in Kashmir, including summer capital Srinagar, on Sunday, facilitating a partial return of normality in the Valley after several weeks of unrest.
The day passed off peacefully except for a small group of people holding a demonstration at China Chowk in southern Anantnag town against the recent arrests by the police and a few stray incidents of rock-throwing in Srinagar. Soon after the curfew was lifted in Anantnag, Pulwama, Kulgam, Shopian and Awantipora towns in the south of the Valley, Handwara in the north and Budgam in central Kashmir, people thronged marketplaces and cars and two-wheelers reappeared on the streets.
Relaxation in curfew for varied durations was allowed in most other Valley cities and towns, including Sopore, Kralpora, Trehgam, Srinagar, Gander-bal, Kangan, Bandipore, Sumbal, Baramulla, Tangmarg and Kunzar. The authorities here are contemplating easing the restrictions in these areas further provided the situation remained peaceful as that would enable reopening of schools and other educational institutions from Monday as pledged by the government.
The authorities here had earlier on Saturday announced that school buses could ply on the roads in spite of curfew being in force in Srinagar and elsewhere in the Valley and that the identity cards of teaching staff would be treated as curfew passes. Even parents could accompany wards to their respective schools and back home.
However, Mr. Geelani, who has rejected the Centre’s eight-point package announced in New Delhi on Saturday to deal with the unrest as “mere eyewash” and a “deliberate attempt to buy time”, chose to scuttle the government’s initiative to bring the educational system back on the rails by issuing a fresh calendar of strikes and protests for 10 days from Monday.
“The government by seeking reopening of schools and colleges on the plea that the future of our children is in jeopardy is only trying to gain the sympathy of the parents rather to drive a wedge among different sections of the society. Most of the 109 people murdered by the so-called security forces since June 11 were students and, therefore, voicing concern over the closure of educational institutions is only a charade on part of those at the helm of affairs in Srinagar and New Delhi,” he said in a statement here.
Earlier, state education minister Peerzada Muhammad Sayeed told a press conference that the government had made elaborate arrangements for teachers, students and non-teaching staff for making all the educational institutions functional from Monday and holding of academic year exams from September 30 as per the schedule and calendar issued by the department of education and Board of School Education.
Mr Sayeed said a majority of people and parents of students and the entire civil society were of the unanimous opinion that the academic career of students should not be wasted. “My department and I fully endorse this view,” he said, adding that additional buses have been pressed into service on various routes in Srinagar while all buses of private and government schools will also run.
He said, “Those leaders who have already been identified by one news channel and who have sent their own children outside the state for higher studies should have mercy on hundreds of thousands of students who have to now appear in examinations and not instigate any person to create violence. A majority of people are also watching as well.”
But following Mr Geelani’s diktat, parents of students are apprehensive. “Who knows what will happen tomorrow. I’m reluctant to send my kids to school and my wife is so scared that she has repudiated my suggestion that I escort them to their school and back home,” said a parent, Khursheed Ahmed Salati.