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Kashmir Valley schools resume after 3 months

However, attendance was thin against the backdrop of hardline Hurriyat leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani's call to parents not to send their wards to schools and colleges.

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Schools reopened in Kashmir on Monday, though attendance was generally thin.

In Srinagar, only a few people sent their children to school because of curfew.

Some people, police said, were stopped on the roads by pro-freedom protesters and told to return home. Some schools in the old city and its outskirts saw empty classrooms.

Hurriyat hardliner Syed Ali Shah Geelani had issued a diktat to parents on Sunday against sending children to schools.

 

He had also asked teachers and non-teaching staff to stay home and observe a strict civil curfew on Monday and show the world that “they prefer azaadi over everything”.

Stray incidents of violence and stone pelting marred the reopening of schools, though the government claimed to have made elaborate security arrangements.

“Some people tried to create hurdles for parents and children. They pelted stones on school buses at Habbak, Machoo and Pindchi Mandi near Tatoo Ground. One group of protesters stopped a car at Wanabal and took away Rs43,000 and a mobile phone from a parent,” a police spokesman said.  

Students and parents were largely relieved at the reopening of schools after three-and-a-half months of violence that has claimed 107 lives. However, there was a reluctant voice here and there. “I would have preferred to stay home given the violence and deaths of young students. Since the exam schedule has been announced, I had no option but to go to school,” a student said.
Another, standard VI student, however, expressed happiness. “I feel great we are back at school,” he chirped.

J Ahmad, who had come from the old city area to drop his two sons to a missionary school, was relieved that students would not suffer anymore. “We are glad that schools have reopened. Exams are round the corner and students need to prepare. I hope students can now study,” he said.

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