Shadow Correspondent
Jammu, May 19:
Almost after 13 days, schools in border areas of Poonch, Rajouri and other districts reopened on Monday with students returning to their educational institutions marking the return of normalcy in the region following the recent India-Pakistan tensions.
But it wasn’t easy for Christ School Poonch, where students and staff returned to the institution amid emotions running high as three of their students were killed in the shelling from across the Line of Control (LoC).
All the students and staff gathered for the morning assembly with tears rolling down their cheeks and cries being heard from every corner of the school when they didn’t find their three mates, twin siblings Zain and Zoya and Vihan Bhargav, who lost their lives in Pakistani shelling.
Talking to ETV Bharat, principal of Christ School Poonch, Father Shizo said that it was hard to return to the school after so much devastation and when three of their students had also been killed. “We observed a
Schools reopen in
two-minute silence for the deceased and prayers were held for their souls. It wasn’t easy for all the students and staff, especially classmates of these students, to return to their classroom when their friends weren’t around. Earlier, all the students used to run around playing and enjoying but this time barring a few classes of lower standards, all the students were in deep grief and sorrow and nobody moved around,” he informed.
“We didn’t go for class work today and allowed the students to mourn their loss which is irreparable. There are no words to define our loss and as emotions were running high all around, school management also allowed the students to adapt to the situation,” the principal said.
“Even one of the classmates of Zoya, Ashma requested to change her section as she wasn’t able to sit on the desk where Zoya used to accompany her,” he added.
On the intervening night of May 6-7, Pakistani forces had attacked Poonch town with heavy artillery shelling in which several structures were damaged and overall 13 people lost their lives in Poonch district. The Christ school Poonch also came under the shelling due to which it had suffered damage at several places.
“Before reopening the school today, we had recovered dozens of splinters of shells from within the school premises and only after proper cleaning the school was reopened,” the principal added.
On May 15, the Director School Education Jammu (DSEJ) had ordered reopening of schools in border areas which were closed after the shelling had started. While most of the schools in Jammu and Kashmir had opened on May 13 and 14, border area schools were given the time for normalcy to return and after assessing the situation, it was ordered to reopen remaining schools on May 19.
Apart from other schools, which reopened today, emotional scenes were also witnessed in Government Higher Secondary School Mandi Poonch, where staff and students prayed for the departed souls of twins Zain and Zoya, whose father Zaman Khan is an employee of the same institution.
Meanwhile, officials of the education department today visited different schools to assess the situation and tried to infuse confidence among staff and students to perform their duties with utmost dedication. The attendance at most of the schools was low but still many students thronged their schools to attend class work.
The rumour mongering of the ceasefire being temporary also kept many students away from the schools, despite the fact that the Army had issued a clarification and had said that it doesn’t have any expiry date.
Poonch town is situated few kilometers away from the LoC, the dividing line between two parts of Jammu and Kashmir which is heavily militarised from both the sides. At the time of increasing hostilities between India and Pakistan, people living along LoC suffer a lot in terms of lives being lost and houses getting damaged in shelling.
