Image Source: TRIBUNE

Monday morning saw much hustle and bustle in the Valley as students, wearing colourful uniforms, headed to their schools, some holding the hands of their parents. It was after 202 days that the children were back to their classes in Kashmir.

Schools had closed on August 5 last year when the Valley woke up to a complete communication blockade and curfew. For nearly seven months students in Kashmir missed their regular classes amid tension and apprehensions of protests.

“We were waiting for this day. Our education has suffered a lot, we were desperate to meet our teachers and our friends whom we had not met all these months,” said Ruvaida Mahfooz, a student of Class IX at a private school in Srinagar.

The government officially closed the schools in Kashmir for a three-month winter break in December. While the government insisted that there was normalcy in Kashmir and asked students to attend classes, the parents had refused to send their children to school last year “as a mark of protest”. The parents had said amid the lockdown, they feared for the safety of their children.