"Kashmir is peaceful", say Kashmiri girls on visit to Capital

This was the sentiment echoed today by a group of 10 girl students from Kupwara town in Kashmir Valley on a visit to a prestigious school here to see for themselves how education and skills are imparted in institutions outside their state.

For most of the teenage girls, this was the first visit to the national capital and they are in awe of their counterparts at G D Goenka School in Dwarka. They were taught skating, Punjabi dance and how to prepare mouth-watering chaat dishes like 'bhel puri' and 'papri chaat'.

Accompanied by four teachers, the girls from various schools from Kupwara town will acquaint themselves for the next four days with various academic and extra curicular activities which they said would like to share with their friends when they return home. A visit to various monuments in Delhi is also on the cards.

A mesmerised Ibtisam, a tenth standard student of Monarch School, wants to learn yoga as she feels it is a "good exercise" for the body.

Even before she completes speaking, her friends Aanika, Sairan Rashid and Suraiya say in chorus that yoga was really "fantastic" and that they would like to practice it everyday.

The girls, who are here as part of a programme organised by 21 Rashtriya Rifles Guards, were unanimous on two issues -- Delhi is "polluted" and Kashmir was "peaceful".

Ibtisam set the ball rolling when she said: "I am still alive and this means that my land is peaceful."

Others joined her and the room reverberated: "We are still alive and this means Kashmir is peaceful. The opinion that terrorism still persists need to be wiped out."

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had recently said there has been a