Jamaat affiliate’s schools told to stop academic activities in J&K

The Jammu and Kashmir school education department ordered cessation of academic activities in schools run by Falah-e-Aam (FAT), an affiliate of banned Jamaat-e-Islami

The Jammu and Kashmir school education department on Tuesday ordered cessation of academic activities in schools run by Falah-e-Aam (FAT), an affiliate of banned Jamaat-e-Islami.

The order was issued by additional secretary, school education department, on the directions of the J&K government. (Representative Image/HT File)

The order was issued by additional secretary, school education department, on the directions of the J&K government. It directed all the students studying in these banned institutions to admit themselves to government schools for the current session. No new admissions will be taken in these banned FAT institutions, and no further registration of these institutions will be done, the order said.

Chief education officers were asked to seal the institutions within 15 days in consultation with the district administration.

The government said FAT runs dozens of schools from primary to higher secondary-level in Kashmir where hundreds of students are enrolled. As per government reports 11,000 students are enrolled in these schools.

In 2019, the Jamaat-e-Islami in Jammu and Kashmir was banned for five years on grounds that it was “in close touch” with militant outfits and was expected to “escalate secessionist movement” in the state After the ban almost all regional mainstream parties had expressed outrage on the ban and said it will have adverse impact on the schools which are run by the organisation. The Jammu and Kashmir government had later clarified that Jamaat-e-Islami’ affiliated schools, mosques and orphanages had been kept outside the purview of the ban on the organisation.

The officials alleged that JeI mostly draws its sustenance from the vast network of FAT schools, seminaries, orphanages, pulpits of mosques and other charities and added that such institutions played a destructive role in large-scale unrest of 2008, 2010 and 2016.

(With agency inputs)