PSAK concerned on stone pelting incidents on school buses

Srinagar, May 03 : Private School Association of Kashmir (PSAK) has expressed its dismay and concern over the violent incident in which stones were hurled on a school bus carrying students.
Terming it as a shameful act, the Association said that one fails to even get proper words to express the incident. “Children are the most innocent and vulnerable section of the society and our collective effort should be to keep them away from harms way. We need to protect them always,” said Var. “The situation is such that everybody feels unsafe be it in their homes or outside. In such a situation children need extra care all across.”
The Association prayed for the speedy recovery of injured students and said that every support will be provided to students to tide over the tragic incident.
The Association said that school buses should be treated as ambulances and be given a free run anywhere. “These school buses carry children towards schools or homes, the two places where they feel secure. We must ensure that the route they take should become a secure one too,” said Var. “We appeal that school buses be treated at par with ambulances. People have great regard for ambulances and everybody helps to clear way for it even during difficult times. Same approach should be employed for school buses.”
The Association said that such an incident on a school bus tends to be a global shame for perpetrators and it can achieve nothing for anybody. The Association said that much like the previous years, this year too the school days have been very less and these incidents are going to further shrink the class days for children. “Our children are distressed and so is our entire educational system. These incidents will further dent the confidence of people and it will have negative impact on education system thus threatening our future,” said Var. “Every section of the society be it our senior leaders or a commoner have condemned the incident. Unequivocally everyone is against such incidents and the loud voice should reach to every quarter. We hope that the incident was a one off incident and will be never again be repeated.”
The Association also condemned the killing of a student Umer Ahmad Kumar of Turkwangan. “It seems to have become a norm that civilians are being subjected to brute force during protests and in most of the cases a student ends up losing a life,” said Var. “Let us hope such incidents are not repeated.”