J&K: Resume classes, students’ union tells protesters

Srinagar: The Kashmir University Students’ Union (KUSU), which spearheaded protests in colleges across the Valley against the use of force by security personnel against students, has asked the student community to resume classes after “a successful display of resistance, unity and valour”.

However, the government has announced that teaching in all higher secondary institutions of the Valley will remain suspended till Friday “as a precautionary measure”. An alliance of separatist leaders has asked people to hold peaceful protests across Kashmir for one hour after Friday prayers.

During fresh student protests on Thursday, Khushboo Jan of Srinagar’s government-run higher secondary school Nawa Kadal was seriously injured. While students alleged that she was targeted by the security forces in their attempt to disperse the protest, a police spokesperson here said that she was hit on her forehead during stone-pelting by “miscreants”.

The protests, inflamed by the alleged police atrocities on the students of a degree college in southern Pulwama town last weekend, have left more than 150 students and over a couple of dozen security personnel injured. Following the protests and clashes which broke out on Monday in almost every nook and corner of the Valley, the authorities had ordered the closure of all high and higher secondary schools, colleges and universities in the Valley.

On Thursday, fresh protests and clashes between irate groups of students and security forces were reported from Ganderbal, Bandipore and Baramulla districts. At places, the security forces fired teargas canisters and swung bamboo sticks in order to contain protests. At Kaloosa in Bandipore, the protesting students hurled rocks on passing vehicles leaving a woman injured, the police said.