Curfew lifted in Kashmir Valley, schools to reopen

SRINAGAR: The Jammu & Kashmir government on Sunday lifted curfew after two weeks of strict restrictions and declared schools and educational institutions, shut for the past three months, open from Monday. The decision followed the Centre's eight-point proposal for the Valley on Saturday which included the reopening of all educational institutions.

Significantly, the order coincides with Hurriyat hardliner Syed Ali Shah Geelani's call for a complete shutdown on Monday.

Chief minister Omar Abdullah appealed to all Kashmiris, particularly separatists, to rise above their stated positions and ideologies and join hands to secure the future of Kashmir's children held hostage to violence.
Educational institutions have been closed for the past three months in the Valley due to shutdowns called by separatists and weeks of intermittent curfew. A number of parents have moved their children to other parts of the country for their education and future.

Life, meanwhile, was normal in Srinagar, Anantnag, Pulwama, Kulgam, Shopian and Awantipora as people stepped out to buy rations. However, curfew on Srinagar-Baramulla road continued.

Omar said all efforts must be made to conduct school and college examinations as scheduled so that students did not suffer loss of an academic year. He said he was extremely concerned about the parents, students and civil society as a whole, who are all keen on their kids' education.

Srinagar's D P Dhar Memorial School has already shifted 200-odd students of class 12 to DPS schools in Delhi to ensure their lessons don't suffer. Parents in the Valley, meanwhile, remain wary about smooth functioning of schools on Monday in light of Geelani's call for a bandh.

Mubeena Shafi, a young mother from Bemina, is in a fix: she doesn't know whether it would be safe to send her five-year-old child to school now. "Let me watch the situation tomorrow and decide whether to send my son to school," she said.

The divisional administration has advised parents to call the police station concerned in case they need help in sending their wards to schools on Monday.