Pakistan firing forces shut 200 border schools in J&K

JAMMU: Over 200

schools

along the border in Jammu and Samba districts have been shut down indefinitely in light of the heavy firing and shelling by Pakistan .

Nearly 174 schools in Jammu and 45 in Samba will remain shut “until further orders”, official sources said on Tuesday. The order applies to government as well as private schools in border areas and along the LoC in Khour, Jourian, Marh, R S Pura, Arnia , Satwati (only Mandal/Makhwal/Lalyal), Akhnoor, Bishnah and Miran Sahib, etc.)

The unrest in Jammu & Kashmir has taken a particularly severe toll on students, with miscreants setting the buildings of at least 27 schools on fire in the Valley, amid a nearly four-month shutdown of educational institutes on the orders of separatists. Police said on Tuesday that they had arrested 12 suspects, with a search underway for another 23.



“In view of the prevailing situation at the international border and the line of control (LoC) in Jammu district, and purely as a precaution... the schools (identified) shall remain

closed

till further orders,” Jammu deputy commissioner Simran Deep Singh said in an order dated November 1.

Meanwhile, Samba deputy commissioner Sheetal Nanda has ordered the closure of schools situated up to 2.5km from the border. On October 3, the state government had ordered the reopening of at least 15 schools in Jammu’s border areas.

The schools’ campuses had been designated temporary camps for migrants from border areas in the wake of the cross-border

firing

from Pakistan that followed India’s cross-LoC surgical strikes on terror launch pads in POK.