Class 2 boy hurt in school bus attack
J&K STONE PELTING 8yearold receives head injuries; politicians, separatists condemn incident, chief minister Mehbooba promises justice
SRINAGAR: A Class 2 student was seriously injured by stone pelters who targeted his school bus in south Kashmir’s Shopian district on Wednesday, triggering outrage across the Kashmir Valley.
Officials said around 40 students were on the way to school when the stone throwers targeted their bus. Rehan Gojari, 8, was hit on the head; he was taken to Srinagar’s Shri Maharaja Hari Singh (SMHS) hospital for specialised treatment.
Shopian’s superintendent of police Shailendra Mishra said the incident took place around 9:25 am when the bus was passing through Narpora area of Shopian. “The driver showed some presence of mind and increased speed so that he could avoid getting hit. However, unfortunately a child was seriously hurt in his head. We had his CT scan (done), he is currently fine,” he said.
Mishra said a couple of more students received some minor injuries and were sent home after first aid. “The kids are scared. We could not ask them about the attackers,” he added.
Police said they are trying to identify the persons involved in the attack. “Soon we will have some arrests,” Mishra said.
Rehan’s father, Nooruddin Gojari, said he saw his son off at around 8:30am. “These are school kids and this attack is against whole humanity. These kids are innocent and they have nothing to do with anything. If anything, school buses should not be targeted. Everybody has kids. This could have happened to anybody’s child,” he said.
Though thousands of stone pelting incidents have been reported in Kashmir since 2016, attacks on school buses are rare. Kashmir has been on the boil since January. In April, 41 people were killed in the state, including 17 civilians. Since January, 114 people, including 37 civilians and 27 members of security forces, have lost their lives in militant attacks or encounters between militants and security forces; 53 militants have been killed in this period. DGP Shesh Paul Vaid tweeted his anger at the attack. “Complete madness how stone pelters are targeting young school children. These criminals will face the law.”
Chief minister Mehbooba Mufti said she was shocked and sad to hear about the attack. “The perpetrators of this senseless and cowardly act will be brought to justice,” she tweeted.
Former CM and opposition leader Omar Abdullah was intrigued as to “how does pelting stones on school children or tourist buses help advance the agenda of these stone pelters?”
“These attacks deserve our unequivocal condemnation and this tweet is mine,” he said.
In a statement, moderate Hurriyat chairman Mirwaiz Umar Farooq said the attack is quite disturbing and “one fails to understand why a school bus carrying children was targeted”.
Farooq said those who indulge in such hooliganism should realise that such actions tarnish “our movement” and provide an opportunity to “our adversary” to defame it. He said that it is the duty of each Kashmiri to safeguard the people’s movement and do no such thing that will be detrimental to it in any way.
On Monday , seven tourists were injured when stone throwers targeted passing vehicles in south Kashmir’s Anantnag district. The injured were part of a group of 47 tourists in four vans.
Abdullah questioned the acts of those stone pelters who took advantage of a government amnesty. “The amnesty granted to stone pelters was meant to encourage more reasonable behaviour but some of these goons are determined to use the opportunity given to them to just pelt more stones,” he said.