J&K stone pelting on school bus: Student asks what was his fault; updates

Stone pelters attacked a school bus in Jammu and Kashmir's Shopian, injuring 2 children. The Rainbow International School bus was carrying 20-25 students. Read more on Shopian stone-pelting incident

An attack on a school bus in Jammu and Kashmir's Shopian by a stone-pelting mob on Wednesday left at least two children injured. The incident took place in Zawoora village of the volatile south Kashmir district of Shopian, sparking condemnation from various political quarters, including Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti and former chief minister Omar Abdullah. 

An official told news agencies that the injured children were shifted to a hospital, where doctors referred one of them to Srinagar for specialised treatment. The police have taken cognizance of the incident and a hunt for the miscreants is underway. 

A teacher from the injured students' school told Greater Kashmir, requesting not to be named, that the bus, ferrying students of the Rainbow International School, came under attack by "some miscreants sitting at a hillock".They "pelted it with stones". At the time of the incident, the bus was taking the students to the school. 

Here are the top developments in the Jammu and Kashmir school bus stone-pelting incident: 

1) Class 2 student receives serious head injury: At least two children were injured in the stone-pelting attack on the school bus in Shopian. According to Greater Kashmir, among those hurt was a class 2 student, who suffered serious head injury. The student was identified as eight-year-old Rehan Ahmad Gorsi, who is a resident of Zampathri village of Kellar area of Shopian. According to the report, Gorsi was admitted to the Sher-I-Kashmir Institute of Medical Sciences after doctors at the Shopian district hospital stabilised him so that he could be taken to Srinagar. 

According to a doctor at SKIMS, Gorsi's head CT-Scan revealed that he has a hematoma. 

2) 'Why am I not in school', asks injured student in hospital: Once he regained consciousness, Gorsi asked his father why he was in a hospital and not in school, reported Rising Kashmir. "Why I am in the hospital, why not in school? Where are my friends? What was my fault?," Gorsi asked his father, said the report. 

The 7-year-old boy said that as the stone hit him, he thought something heavy fell on my head, said the report. "Then, one of the female school teachers in the bus took me in her lap and put a towel on my head. I do not know what happened to me later," Gorsi told Rising Kashmir at SMHS hospital. 

3) J&K DGP SP Vaid says attack 'complete madness': Director General of Police (DGP) of Jammu & Kashmir, Shesh Paul Vaid described the stone-pelting attack on the school bus as "complete madness", saying that the criminals responsible for  "targeting young school children" will "face the law". 


4) Omar Abdullah slams stone pelters, calls for 'unequivocal condemnation': Reacting to the Shopian incident, former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Omar Abdullah said that "these attacks deserve our unequivocal condemnation". Further, Abdullah asked how pelting stones on school children or tourist buses will help advance the stone pelters' agenda.


"The amnesty granted to stone-pelters was meant to encourage more reasonable behaviour but some of these goons are determined to use the opportunity given to them to just pelt more stones," tweeted Abdullah. 

5) Mehbooba Mufti calls attack 'senseless, cowardly': Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti assured that justice would be done to the victims of the attack. Expressing shock and anger over the attack on the school bus in Shopian, Mufti tweeted that the perpetrators of this "senseless and cowardly act will be brought to justice".


6) Mirwaiz Umar Farooq warns that such incidents 'tarnish our movement': Moderate Hurriyat Conference chairman Mirwaiz Umar Farooq called the school bus stone-pelting incident "hooliganism", but stopped short of condemning the attack. "The stone-throwing incident in Shopian on a school bus is quite disturbing and one fails to understand why a school bus carrying children was targeted," he said in a statement, adding that those who indulge in "such hooliganism" should realise that such actions "tarnish our movement and provide an opportunity to our adversary to defame it".   

Farooq added that it is the duty of each Kashmiri to "safeguard the people's movement for which immense sacrifices are being given and do no such thing that will be detrimental to it in any way". 

7) 'Tried my best', says school bus driver: The driver of the school bus that was attacked in Jammu and Kashmir by stone-pelters said that he had tried his best to save the students but unfortunately one got injured. "I sped up the bus as soon as I realised stones were being pelted at the bus. I tried my best to save the students but one student got injured," the driver told news agencies. 

8) Congress says BJP-PDP experiment has failed in Kashmir: Following the incident, the Congress said that the situation in Kashmir was "very serious" and added that the Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP's) experiment of forming a government with the People's Democratic Party (PDP) had "completely failed". It also demanded that the Narendra Modi government come out with a statement on the law and order situation in Jammu and Kashmir.  

With agency inputs