BSF to vacate schools occupied by it soon

Rifat Mohidin

tribune News Service

Srinagar, September 1

The Director, School Education, Kashmir, today said the paramilitary forces, which had occupied around a dozen schools in Srinagar, would vacate soon.

The government had earlier come under severe criticism from the civil society and some officials for allowing the security forces to occupy schools. They reasoned that this would make the places of learning vulnerable in Kashmir.

“Forces will vacate all schools soon,” said Shah Faesal, Director, School Education, Kashmir.

A senior government official had earlier said that the Department of school Education, Kashmir, was not taken into confidence by the government while taking the decision to allow security forces to occupy schools. They said that some model schools were also included in it and the stationing of troops there could damage the perception about these schools.

“The Department of Education had also taken up the matter with the divisional administration,” the official said.

A senior BSF officer in Srinagar said they had temporarily moved into schools for accommodation purpose, but had already vacated most of them.

“We were on the Amaranth yatra duty basically. After that the boys were moved into schools temporarily for accommodation purpose. Most of the schools have already been vacated,” the officer said.

The BSF was rushed by the Centre to deal with the street protests in the Valley. The BSF was tasked to assist the security forces in the state to contain protests in which 70 civilians have been killed and over 6,000 injured following the killing of Hizbul Mujahideen commander Burhan Wani on July 8.

Around a dozen government schools were occupied by the BSF since last week. The BSF was deployed in Srinagar after a gap of 12 years.

With exams just a month away, the students in the Valley’s 13,000 schools have not attended classes for the past two months since the unrest began.