Mehbooba congratulates Class X toppers

Azhar Qadri

Tribune News Service

Srinagar, May 21

Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) president Mehbooba Mufti today congratulated the two Kashmiri girls, who topped the Class X examination in the Valley, and invited them for a meeting, even as Education Minister Naeem Akhter visited their homes in south Kashmir’s militant stronghold of Tral.

The Member of Parliament from Anantnag rang up the two girls — Anika Shabir and Shaheera Shamin — and congratulated them for their bright performance in the results announced earlier this week, a source said.

The PDP president told the girls that she was proud of them and invited them for a meeting, the sources added.

Anika stood first with 98.80 per cent marks while Shaheera bagged the second position with 98.10 per cent marks in the Class X examination.

The two girls are residents of Dadsara village of Tral, a separatist hotbed which has produced scores of militants during the past two decades of insurgency.

Meanwhile, Education Minister Naeem Akhter visited the homes of two girls in Dadsara village, his second visit to Tral sub-division of Pulwama district in recent days.

The Minister stayed in the village for nearly two hours and congratulated the girls and their families.

“We had gone to Dadsara to meet the two students. We appreciated them and felicitated them,” president of PDP’s youth wing Waheed-ur-Rehman Para, who accompanied Akhter to Dadsara, told The Tribune.

The PDPyouth wingpresident said Akhter assured the families of the two toppers that measures would be taken to strengthen the education system in Tral and initiated counselling for girls in the area.

The Education Minister also visited Hajahad Public School in the Awantipora area of Pulwama district where from the two girls did their schooling.

The Minister also met a student from government school at Dadsara, who complained about the lack of library infrastructure at the school, following which he issued an on-the-spot order.