Kashmir school bus attack: ‘Don’t our children have the right to study?’

Inside the trauma ward of SMHS Hospital in Srinagar, nine-year-old Rehan Goorsi is struggling to understand as to why was he attacked by “pro-freedom” protesters on Wednesday morning.

“Our school bus was on way to the school. As soon as our bus entered Zoara village, they (protesters) started pelting it with stones and bricks from all sides. Before I could understand anything, a rock hit me on the head and passed out,” recalls Gorsi, narrating the incident in a feeble voice.

At least two children were injured when unknown protesters threw stones at a school bus in Shopian in South Kashmir. There were more than 50 children on the bus, including four-year-old nursery students of a private school. Another student, who also suffered a head injury, was discharged after treatment on the same day.

In an editorial titled “Absolute Madness” in the local daily Kashmir Images, the paper stated, “It is time to move beyond token admonitions and guarded condemnations, and try and look at this larger malaise of stone-pelting in the face, debate it for its merits and demerits so as to evolve at a reasonable conclusion whether it could be accorded the sanctity of status quo. And more than anything else, it is time for the society to decide whether it could afford to look at the students as expendables in a larger political game played in Kashmir’s amphitheatre.” It went on to state that “nobody wants to be seen as ‘anti-movement’ and framed as being a traitor; for people know how traitors are treated here!”

“Do Kashmir’s children have a right to study? Do ‘we the people’ of Kashmir need education — and schools, and colleges and universities?” the editorial asked before concluding that “it’s time people are told loud and clear and without any wooliness as to what those in the leadership roles think about the education of our children.”

Pertinently, Shopian district has been a powder keg since the mass uprising of 2016. The area has nearly 40 active militants. Frequent strikes due to the militant and civilian killings take its toll on education system. Over the past four months, the town remained closed for 80 days. There were only nine working days in the month of April.

“On Wednesday, the town also observed a spontaneous shut down because a militant was killed but we are also concerned about the education of our students. So all the private schools unanimously decided to keep the schools open. Little did anyone know that they children will meet such a fate,” said a teacher on condition of anonymity.

Rehan Goorsi’s father, Noor-u-Din, questioned the silence maintained by most over the incident. “Children are our future and no one should be allowed to harm them or stop them from going to school,” he said. Asked if anyone from the government or administration visited the hospital to inquire about his son’s well being, he said, “No one except for some people from the school management have visited us so far.”

“It is a very shameful incident. They (stone pelters) did not even spare children. What is our society coming to?” asked Farooq Ahmad, a parent who child was also travelling in the bus. “As a parent, I demand a strict action against such miscreants.”

Notably, when the management of Rainbow International Educational Institute was taking Gorsi to the hospital after the incident, another school bus in the town was targeted by stone pelters.

With parents demanding a strict action against the miscreants, the incident evoked widespread outrage from both mainstream and separatist leaders.

Soon after the incident, Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti wrote on Twitter: “Shocked and angered to hear of the attack on school a bus in Shopian. The perpetrators of this senseless and cowardly act will be brought to justice.”

Reacting to the incident state’s top cop Shesh Paul Vaid said that the “criminals will face the law”.

Reacting to the incident, former Chief Minister and National Conference president Omar Abdullah, in a series of angry tweets, said that “goons” were using amnesty to pelt more stones. “The amnesty granted to stone pelters was meant to encourage reasonable behavior but some of these goons are determined to use the opportunity given to them to just pelt more stones.”

Separatist leader Mirwaiz Omar Farooq while condemning the incident said that such incidents were meant to tarnish the freedom movement.

SP Shopian Shalindra Mishra said the police had not made any arrests as they were still identifying the culprits. “It may take a little more time as children are still in shock and we can’t discuss the matter with them. We will talk to the students for clues to get hold of the accused persons,” he said.