Srinagar: Following several incidents of stalking and eveteasing, yet another picnic in South Kashmir has gone awry. This time the girl students from Zainakoot Higher Secondary School, who have alleged misbehavior by their elderly principal during a picnic at Pehalgam, took to the highway near Zainakoot and staged a protest demonstration on Monday. The highway remained blocked for more than five hours and the students dispersed only after the authorities announced that the “erring Principal” had been suspended till further orders.
Boys joined their girl schoolmates to protest what they described as “indecent taunts” the Principal had hurled at the girls while they were whiling away in Betab Valley at Pehalgam. The students alleged that the School Principal after separating boys from girls did not allow them to use mobile phones and hurled taunts at some of the students for using their cell phones, an allegation denied by school authorities.
In their response, the school authorities said that the Principal Abdul Rashid Mir directed girls to keep themselves aloof from male students during picnic hours and he did not allow them to use cell phones. He did it in good faith and to avoid any scandal in the isolated Betab Valley. Being a father-figure and the Principal he has right to scold if anyone breeches discipline, authorities said adding that despite the strict orders some students were seen using their cell phones and accordingly the Principal took them to task.
They said that some mischievous students tried to instigate them and accordingly they came on roads on Monday. Their protest was not justified in any way, they said.
Eyewitnesses said that due to protests and blockade of the roads, hundreds of vehicles got stranded while some patients were seen walking by foot to reach to the hospitals. My mother was writhing in pain, due to traffic jam she suffered immensely. I lifted her on my shoulders and walked several kilometers, a resident of Narbal Abdul Hamid said.
It was only after five hours of mess that police swung into action and charged the students with canes who in retaliation pelted stones on them. During the clashes, two policemen including a Head Constable Fayaz Ahmed and Shabir Ahmed were injured. After the police action, the protestors dispersed and the traffic on the road was restored.
A police official said that they tried their best to pacify protestors without using any force but they did not budge and created a mess on the Srinagar-Baramulla road.
Meanwhile, Director School Education Mir Tariq has ordered immediate suspension of the said Principal and has attached him in the Directorate of School Education.
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