J A M M U   &   K A S H M I R

One teacher for 150 students
Quake hits education in Bela
Bela (Uri) May 11
It is no better than a pigeonhole. But children of
quake-affected families, now resettled at Bela base camp in Uri, attend their makeshift primary school as religiously as possible.

Mohammad Yusuf (in the centre) is the lone teacher for over 150 children at makeshift primary school in Bela base camp at Uri where 260 quake hit families have been given temporary shelters. — Photo by writer

54 passengers cross LoC
Srinagar, May 11
Altogether 54 passengers on board the Srinagar-Muzaffarabad bus crossed the Line of Control at the Kaman Post in Border area of Uri today, official sources said.

Jawan killed in encounter
Jammu, May 11
Soldier, Kedar Singh, of the 43 Rashtriya Rifles sacrificed his life, while havildar Satish Parshad was wounded seriously in an encounter with terrorists in the Thana Mandi area of the Poonch district today.

11 houses gutted in Poonch
Jammu, May 11
Eleven houses were gutted in a fire that broke out in Poonch district of Jammu and Kashmir, official sources said today. The fire broke out yesterday due to short circuit in a house in village Karwa of Loran belt in the district, the sources said.

One teacher for 150 students
Quake hits education in Bela
Aditi Tandon
Tribune News Service

Bela (Uri) May 11
It is no better than a pigeonhole. But children of quake-affected families, now resettled at Bela base camp in Uri, attend their makeshift primary school as religiously as possible.

Huddled together in heaps, they gasp for breath every now and then, frantically looking for a few drops of water. But the precious resource remains elusive. Whatever little is available is consumed in semi permanent tin shelters, now home to 260 families displaced by the October 8 earthquake. Children must therefore endure thirst and hunger and everything else that comes in the wake of a natural disaster.

So they endure. Inside the wooden shelter, which they call school, they learn the lessons of life all over again. Attending to them is 21-year-old Mohammad Yusuf, the lone teacher at Bela base camp primary school, which has about 150 students.

The challenge he faces is grave and the facilitation minimal. But Yusuf is high on spirits as he has the assistance of 18-year-old Munir Hussain who volunteered to teach at Bela after having lost his entire family in the quake. Together the two are trying hard to impart literacy to traumatized children, who are learning English, Mathematics and Urdu at school.

But the task is not easy by any means. Teaching materials are meagre, so is the incentive to teach. “Getting children to concentrate is very tough. Their souls are still scarred by memories of the event. They still want to know what the earthquake is, where it strikes and whether it can strike again. I am humbled by their innocence,” says Yusuf, who uses informal techniques like games to engage children during school timings from 10 am to 4 pm.

For their part, children are putting up with inconvenience of the worst kind. During winters they had endured biting chill when the school was running from a tent. But summers have been even more unbearable. As seven-year-old Imran, says: “It is so suffocating inside the shelter. I keep feeling thirsty all the time. Outside it is sultry and hot. That is why I hate coming to school.”

The state government is yet to construct school buildings, which were razed to the ground on October 8. There have been suggestions to auction razed sites to builders so that the work of construction can be expedited but nothing has been heard so far, says Sarfaraz Kham, Cluster Education Officer, Uri zone, who motivates parents to send children to schools.

While the state government waits to facilitate education, precious man-hours are being wasted trying to teach children in hostile conditions. Another problem is acute shortage of teachers in the Valley. At least 70 posts are lying vacant in Uri educational zone alone. At Bela base camp primary school, the teacher student ratio is 1: 150.

“In such adverse conditions, it is foolhardy to expect results from anyone,” says 80-year-old village elderly from Bela, adding, “Such education is a formality. It would be better if the government asked children to sit at home till it constructed new buildings.”

But some children would rather attend pigeonhole schools than sit at home. For them, school is a place where they can learn to share pain and overcome it. No wonder the makeshift school at Bela has facilitated some great bonds, like the one shared between nine-year-old Zahida who lost most family members in the quake; six-year-old Gulshan who survived despite being buried under the debris for seven hours and eight year old Sharmila, who has found friends at school, notwithstanding her minority status as a Hindu.

54 passengers cross LoC

Srinagar, May 11
Altogether 54 passengers on board the Srinagar-Muzaffarabad bus crossed the Line of Control (LoC) at the Kaman Post in Border area of Uri today, official sources said.

As many as 41 passengers — 25 fresh and 16 returnee — left here for Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) on board the “Karvaan-e-Aman (Caravan of Peace)”.

Similarly, 13 passengers — seven fresh and six returnee — arrived here from Muzaffarabad, the capital of PoK.

The passengers, who had come on board the previous cross-border buses, went back to Muzaffarabad after visiting their relatives in Kashmir, Poonch, Rajouri and Jammu.

The sources said a large number of people, comprising relatives, friends and well-wishers gave a warm send-off to the passengers.

The cross-border bus service between the divided Kashmir was launched by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh from here on April 7 last year after nearly 58 years following an agreement reached between India and Pakistan to allow families, separated since 1947, to meet each other.

The 170-km Srinagar-Muzaffarabad road, also known as the Jhelum Valley road, was closed for traffic on October 27, 1947 when “Kabailis (tribesmen)” invaded parts of Jammu and Kashmir which came to be known as PoK. — UNI

Jawan killed in encounter
Tribune News Service

Jammu, May 11
Soldier, Kedar Singh, of the 43 Rashtriya Rifles sacrificed his life, while havildar Satish Parshad was wounded seriously in an encounter with terrorists in the Thana Mandi area of the Poonch district today.

A terrorist belonging to the Lahkar-e-Toiba (LeT) identified as Abu Khatib Hashmi was shot dead in the encounter.

In another incident, unidentified terrorists slit the throat of Waris Hussain Shah whom they kidnapped from the Gursai village in Mendhar area of Poonch. Another kidnapped person, Nazir Hussain, was found unconscious by the police.

Terrorists killed Dilshad Begum (22), who was wife of a member of the village Defence Committee Mohammad Farooq. The militants raided his house in the Dhandli village in the Mahore area of Udhampur and fired at her indiscriminately.

A former special police officer Irshad Ahmed, who had joined terrorist ranks, was killed in an encounter with security forces at Hanzal-Dehrana in the Doda district.

11 houses gutted in Poonch

Jammu, May 11
Eleven houses were gutted in a fire that broke out in Poonch district of Jammu and Kashmir, official sources said today.

The fire broke out yesterday due to short circuit in a house in village Karwa of Loran belt in the district, the sources said.

The Army personnel from nearby locations rescued all villagers, they said, adding fire was brought under control last night by the fire tenders. The villagers are expected to have suffered loss of lakhs of rupees as their belongings were reduced to ashes, they said, adding a case was also registered in this direction. — PTI