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No communication with families, Kashmiri students head home in worry
As mobile phone and internet services were suspended after Hizbul Mujahideen commander Riyaz Naiko was killed by security forces in South Kashmir’s Pulwama district on Wednesday, students were unable to share the news of evacuation with their families in the valley
As many as 600 labourers and students of Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) were evacuated from Chandigarh on Friday. Around 25 buses sent by the J&K administration had on Thursday night arrived in the city to evacuate hundreds of students and labourers stranded in the city amid the nationwide lockdown.
One of the students Mohammad Saleem, 21, who hails from Baramulla district in J&K and studies biotechnology at DAV College on Sector 10 here, said he was not able to inform his parents about the evacuation due to suspension of internet and mobile services in the valley on Wednesday.
These services were suspended after Hizbul Mujahideen commander Riyaz Naiko was killed by security forces in South Kashmir’s Pulwama district on Wednesday.
Mohammad Saleem further said, “My parents don’t know that I am coming back from Chandigarh because I was not able to communicate with them since the day the communication was suspended.”
A Panjab University student, Junaid Maqbool, who belongs to Kashmir’s Budgam district, said, “It will take more time to reach Srinagar than usual due to screening process going on at many places. My family was worried about my evacuation and now they don’t even know that I am returning.”
“Though I have yet not been able to share the news of evacuation with my family, I have asked a known, who is already on his way to Kashmir, to tell my parents about it,” said Junaid Maqbool.
Manager at JK house in Chandigarh, Dr Inderjot Singh, who is also the liaison officer for students in the region, said, “We have evacuated around 600 labourers and students from Sector 29, Sector 26 grain market, Manimajra and Sector 17 in Chandigarh.”
“All the persons sent from here will be taken care of by their respective local administrations,” he said.
However, later in the night mobile phone services were restored in valley.
