Superintendent of Police, Kulgam, Shridhar Patil told DNA they have arrested 10 people for torching Government High School Mirhama and Jawahar Navodhaya Vidyalaya in the district.
Jammu and Kashmir Police achieved a first major breakthrough when they arrested 10 people allegedly involved in the torching of two schools in the Kulgam district of south Kashmir.
Superintendent of Police, Kulgam, Shridhar Patil told DNA they have arrested 10 people for torching Government High School Mirhama and Jawahar Navodhaya Vidyalaya in the district.
“During investigations it has been revealed that the school burning incidents was a mischief by miscreants. The arrested people are also involved in the stone pelting incidents during the unrest,” he said.
Police have also zeroed in on some more people involved in the torching of other schools in south Kashmir. However, the accused have escaped outside the Kashmir valley. “Many of them have fled outside the valley. I do not have the exact figures. But we do not know where they have gone. What we know is that they are not at their homes,” said Patil.
Sources said police is investigating the links of the accused with the separatists in Kashmir. So far separatists have denied any role in the torching of schools and in fact cried conspiracy to defame the ongoing agitation in the valley.
The arrest comes days after Jammu and Kashmir high court took a suo moto notice of the “unfortunate and horrendous episodes” and called for collective efforts to save the school buildings from ”mysterious enemies of education”.
“All concerned at their respective levels and the authorities of the government in particular shall immediately take all necessary measures so as to protect these school buildings,” the court said.
The court had also directed the Divisional Commissioner Kashmir, Inspector General of Police, Kashmir, and Director School Education Kashmir to devise modes and methods in collaboration with higher authorities and lower officials which shall be effective in protecting school institutions.
More than 26 schools have been set ablaze by unknown arsonists in Kashmir since the unrest began after the killing of Hizbul Mujahedeen poster boy Burhan Wani.
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