J&K govt refutes shifting minority group teachers after civilian killings in Srinagar

The School Education Department of the Jammu and Kashmir Government on Tuesday refuted the news item 'DSEK Proposes Govt. to shift minority teachers to safer places' which is in circulation across many social media groups.

The news on the J&K administration planning to shift teachers from minority groups to safer areas started doing rounds in the wake of two school teachers-Satinder Kaur and Deepak Chand- were dragged out of their classrooms and shot dead by the terrorists in Eidgah Sangam of Srinagar.

'NOT' planning to shift teachers of minority group: J&K govt 

In a statement, the Government of Jammu and Kashmir made it clear that they were 'NOT' planning to shift teachers from the minority community to other locations. "School Education Department has not issued any order regarding mass leave, deployment or mass transfer of academic or non-academic staff for minority employees," the government of the valley said. 

The government added, "Further, all schools are running as per normal schedule in JKUT as per the guidelines issued by the Government with strict adherence to COVID-19 protocols."

Targetted killings in Kashmir

In the past one week, J&K witnessed a number of targeted killings. On Thursday, October 7, two school teachers-Satinder Kaur and Deepak Chand were shot dead by terrorists in Jammu and Kashmir. Both the teachers were dragged out of their classrooms and shot dead by the terrorists in Eidgah Sangam, a downtown area of Srinagar. 

A day before that, on October 6, a prominent Kashmiri Pandit named Makhan Lal Bindroo was shot dead outside his pharmacy in Srinagar, near Iqbal Park. He was a prominent businessman in the valley region with two medical stores in Srinagar including one started by his family in 1947. The area was later cordoned off and a search to nab the terrorists was initiated. 

After that, the terrorists struck near Madina Chowk Lalbazar area of Srinagar where one non-local civilian identified as Virender Paswan was killed by them. This was the second attack carried out on a non-Kashmiri street vendor. The deceased residing in Alamgari Bazar Zadibal was a resident of Bihar’s Bhagalpur. Following this, a third attack was reported from Bandipora District in North Jammu and Kashmir where a civilian identified as Mohd Shafi Lone resident of Naidkhai was shot dead. He was rushed to a hospital but was declared dead. The Kashmir police tweeted mentioning 'coward #terrorists shot dead a civilian'.

Reportedly, the Resistance Front (TRF), an offshoot of Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba claimed responsibility for the attacks. In a letter, the TRF has claimed that it does not target innocents or civilians, but the ones who 'collaborate' with the Government of India.