J&K invites stone-pelters for career counselling

400 boys & girls to be present as cops follow PM’s advice

Around 400 Kashmiri youth, half of them girls, have been invited to a career counselling fête being organised by the police at a college in Shopian town, 52 kilometres south of Srinagar, on Thursday.

The distinctiveness of the gathering is that many of the invitees were those young boys and teenagers from south Kashmir who have been involved in stone-pelting incidents that overwhelmed the Valley in the aftermath of the killing of Hizbul Mujahideen commander Burhan Wani in July 2016. Four districts of south Kashmir — Kulgam, Anantnag, Shopian and Pulwama — were the worst hit in the mayhem in which over 80 people died, mainly in firing by security forces.

“We are expecting a good number of such youth, approximately 250, who have agreed to shun stone-pelting and return back in normal life,” said Jammu and Kashmir DGP Shesh Paul Vaid. “We want these children to build their career. The Prime Minister said that he wants to see pens and laptops in the hands of Kashmiri youth, and not stones, and the J&K police is in a subtle way contributing towards the effort. We don’t want these young boys to die or get involved in cases. People play politics and spoil their career,” he The PM said he wants to see pens and laptops in the hands of Kashmiri youth, not stones, and the J&K police is, in a subtle way, contributing towards the effort

said.

Among the experts who have been invited by the police to hold counselling sittings with the students and youth include Prime Minister Development Fellows and career and educational consultants Sadashiv Nayanpally and Aniket Choudhary, as well as Kashmir Administrative Services (KAS) officers Shoaib Noor and Dr Salma Nabi.

“We’re going to help these children to know and understand themselves and the world of work in order to make career, educational, and life decisions,” Shopian SSP Tahir Saleem said.

A few months ago, the J&K police had started invoking the teachings of Islam against stone-pelting by “misguided” youth. It did create an impact on sections of the local population, but the killing of Wani weakened the campaign. The mayhem continued for more than four months and stone-pelting still goes on in the Valley, mainly on Fridays.