Hundreds of schools were ordered to close indefinitely in occupied Kashmir Wednesday after shelling by Indian and Pakistani troops in two days. Authorities on the Indian-held side Kashmir said nearly 300 schools had been ordered to close from Wednesday morning, following the death of eight civilians on Tuesday in mortar shelling along the highly militarised border.
Officials on the Pakistani side said around 25 schools would be closed in the Nakyal sector for the rest of the week due to shelling by Indian forces which had killed six civilians since Monday.
The closures represent another blow to a beleaguered education system already hit by widespread closures in occupied Srinagar.
Eight civilians including two children were killed on Tuesday when mortar bombs hit two locations in the Samba and Rajouri sectors, in occupied Jammu region.
"Nearly 300 schools, both private and government-run, have been asked to close down in occupied Jammu, Samba and Kathua districts," Pawan Kotwal, a top official in Jammu, told AFP.
He said the border remained relatively calm overnight with only a few cases of cross-border firing in some areas.
On Monday Pakistani authorities said an 18-month-old girl was among six civilians killed on its side of the border in firing by Indian forces in the Jammu region. Islamabad summoned a senior Indian diplomat to protest over the killings.
The closure order in the occupied Jammu region comes at a time when teaching at many government and private schools in occupied Srinagar and elsewhere in the Kashmir Valley remains severely disrupted.
Schools torched
Although schools are officially open, many pupils and teachers have been unable to attend class for months because of a 52-day-long curfew and a continuing shutdown called by separatist groups, that has severely hit normal life. Nearly 30 schools have been torched in the held Kashmir Valley since July but no-one has been arrested for the arson attacks.
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