Valley schools, colleges shut down post Hizb men’s killing
All educational institutes in Kashmir remained shut on Monday, a day after eight people – including three militants and two soldiers – were killed in separate incidents. Restrictions were placed on traffic and pedestrian movement in the old Srinagar area.
Officials said the precautionary steps were taken to avoid lawand-order incidents in the aftermath of Sunday’s violence. Section 144 of the CrPC was imposed on areas falling under five police stations in downtown Srinagar.
Hizbul Mujahideen commander Yasin Itoo alias Mehmood Gaznavi was among the militants killed in an encounter with security personnel in south Kashmir’s Shopian district. While two soldiers lost their lives in the gunbattle that began on Saturday night, two civilians suffered fatal injuries in clashes that erupted later.
In a separate incident, another civilian was critically injured in a petrol bomb attack at Srinagar’s Dalgate area. He later succumbed to his injuries.
Separatists did not issue a shutdown call on Monday, which also happens to be the Independence Day of neighbouring Pakistan. It’s on the next day, the anniversary of India’s Independence, that life is expected to come to a grinding halt. “Syed Ali Geelani, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq and Mohammad Yasin Malik have called on people to observe a complete shutdown on August 15, India’s Independence Day, and appealed to the teachers, stu- dents and parents to boycott all functions related to the event,” a joint statement issued by the separatists said. The leaders also “warned” the government against forcing teachers, students and their parents to participate in pro-India functions.
“After Allah Almighty, Pakistan is the only visible support to the people of Kashmir,” said Geelani, chairman of the hardline Hurriyat faction, after greeting the Pakistan government and the Kashmiri people on Monday.
Gaznavi was named Hizbul Mujahideen commander by United Jihad Council chief Syed Salahuddin four days after the killing of militant Burhan Wani in July last year. Wani’s killing led to unrest in the strife-torn Valley for at least five months, killing hundreds.
Dalai Lama has suggested that India use soft power, including its Buddhist heritage and tourism, to defuse tensions with China.
The 14th Dalai Lama, who is in Mumbai to inaugurate a course on ‘secular ethics’ at Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS), said on Monday that India should arrange for Chinese Buddhists to visit holy places such as the Dharmasala in Himachal Pradesh and Gaya in Bihar.
“There are 400 million Buddhists living in China. If India invites them here they will come closer to the country,” he said.
The Dalai Lama said that despite border skirmishes, the two countries will have to coexist peacefully. “India and China can only create troubles for each other every now and then, but they cannot defeat each other, as both have powerful militaries. You should once think about ‘Hindi-Chini bhai bhai’ once again,” he said, invoking the popular catchphrase used to describe relations between India and China during 1950s.
The Dalai Lama, who fled Tibet in 1959 as a 23-year-old, said that till 1951, Tibet had served as a “buffer” zone between the two countries. However, that changed after the SeventeenPoint Agreement, which affirmed Chinese sovereignty over Tibet, came into effect, he added.
The spiritual leader also endorsed the ‘secular’ approach to teach human values, instead of the traditional religious discourse. “The world has more than seven billion people, of which one billion are atheists. And even among believers, many are not convinced by their faiths. We need a secular way to teach values, based on scientific findings ,” he said.
He also called for a more holistic education system. “Humans are a combination of body and mind. While the modern education system is important to meet our physical requirements, we need more knowledge about mind. In addition to their regular subjects, we can teach children how to achieve mental peace,” he said.