Jammu & Kashmir Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti urged the students in Kashmir to return to the educational institutions instead of going on the streets or idling at homes. Speaking at a function in Jammu on Tuesday she said the right place for the students is to be in the educational institutions like IITs, IIMs, engineering, medical, dental colleges and not on the streets.

The educational institutions in Kashmir are shut for the past more than two months due to summer vacations which were followed by the unrest that triggered off after the killing of Hizbul Mujahideen commander Burhan Wani on July 8. 

“Education is considered most important in all religions and we should seek education as a religious duty to realize the higher goals of life,” she said. “Our children look good with books in their hands in the classrooms studying to be doctors, engineers and architects of our future rather than being on the streets,” she said.

Asserting that education holds key to emancipation and empowerment of any society, Mehbooba outlined the importance of providing quality education to the youth with greater focus on skill development to enhance their proficiency. She said the pursuit of education should not be merely for the purpose of acquiring employment and that it should serve the larger purpose of transforming the character of an individual by making him/her aware of his surroundings.

The statement came in the background of continued shutdown in Kashmir sponsored by the separatists. Even as the Education Minister Naeem Akhtar who controversially took several steps to “bring the education system on rails” since the PDP-BJP coalition took over in March 2015, tried several methods to reopen educational institutions in Kashmir but the methods did not work on the ground. Recently, he issued orders to the State board of school education to prepare for conducting annual examinations due in autumn. However, the minister’s commandment evaporated when the authorities deployed additional troops in schools and colleges in capital Srinagar and several towns of the Valley.

Mehbooba also laid emphasis on putting skill education at the forefront of the ongoing educational efforts in the state and said that skill enhancement is required to be given priority in the state as education without market-driven skills only adds to unemployment.

Speaking at a separate function in Rajouri Mehbooba said urged for creating new basis of legitimacy for the peace and resolution process.

 “The focus has to be on involving the principal stakeholders – the people of Jammu and Kashmir – in the resolution process to make it sustainable and productive,” the Chief Minister.

The Chief Minister also laid stress on revival and continuation of peace and confidence building process with Pakistan which had helped transform the situation in the State and along the borders between 2002 and 2005. “The Government of India must, with fresh resolve, work through reconciliatory political measures and through public participation towards the resolution of the issue,” she said and added that Jammu & Kashmir could become a bridge of peace and a hub of economic activity in the region given its geostrategic location.

Calling for expanding the ambit and scope of the cross-loC movement of the people and goods, the Chief Minister said the full potential of the State can be harnessed only through opening it up and empowering all the regions to benefit from the new market economy growing in the region. “For a lasting solution of the State’s problems, substantial political and economic measures have to be taken that meet the reasonable aspirations of the people in all the regions of the State,” she said.

Mehbooba said even if Pakistan may be, due to own political reasons, presently reluctant to reciprocate the peace overtures from New Delhi, whatever can be done to address the internal dimensions of the Kashmir issue must be done without delay. “Government of India shall have to take one or more steps than our neighboring country (Pakistan) as Jammu and Kashmir is our state and we have to apply balm on the wounds of the people,” she said and added that we have to have a roadmap of hope for the people of Jammu and Kashmir who are embroiled in a challenging and pernicious situation.