Schools Reopen At 30 Remaining Locations
Srinagar: After remaining shut for about two weeks due to security concerns in the face of India-Pakistan military escalation, schools and other educational institutions reopened in the thirty remaining border areas of Jammu and Kashmir on Monday, signalling a cautious return to normalcy.
The officials said that the areas where academic activities resumed fall in proximity to the Line of Control (LoC) and International Border (IB) in Poonch, Rajouri, Jammu, Samba and Kathua districts.
Poonch, along with Rajouri, bore the brunt of heavy Pakistani firing and shelling between May 7 and 10, leading to the death of about twenty people including (Rajouri’s) Additional District Development Commissioner Raj Kumar Thapa and, like in Uri and Tangdhar sections of the Kashmir Valley, leaving a trail of destruction of homes and infrastructure.
They said that the decision to reopen schools at the 30 remaining locations as well was taken by the government keeping in view significant improvement in the security situation. However, the district administrations have asked the school authorities to remain vigilant.
As per reports received here, the students returned to schools beaming with excitement after the forced break and were accorded a warm welcome with joyful faces by their teachers.
While schools and colleges shut as a precaution in the first week of this month reopened in most parts of the Kashmir Valley on May 14, those falling in border districts such as Kupwara, Baramulla, and Bandipora’s Gurez sector remained closed longer due to security concerns. In the Jammu region schools and other educational institutions reopened on May 15, excluding vulnerable frontiers. The educational institutions shut in the border areas of neighbouring Punjab too have reopened as the ceasefire agreed upon during a hotline contact between the Director Generals of Military Operations (DGsMOs) of India and Pakistan on May 10 and renewed on May 12 holds.
The Indian Army had on Sunday that there is no expiry date for the truce understanding reached between the (DGsMOs) of the two countries towards the cessation of active hostilities. Reacting to reports appearing in a section of media that had suggested the ceasefire faced the key deadline of May 18 and that the truce might not last after it, a defence spokesman here had said, “There is no expiry date to it”.
