Adil Lateef
Srinagar, June 18: Government today said it will contact and seek information from a prominent private school about sacking of a teacher for wearing ‘Abaya’ (long cloak) even as it asserted that the State is multi-religious and multi-cultural having secular setup.
“It is a private school. We will contact the management. We will try to get to the truth of it,” said Education Minister, Naeem Akhtar, in Lower House after Independent Legislator Abdul Rashid Sheikh raised the issue of sacking of the teacher at Delhi Public School Srinagar, which has drawn flak from students and other Sections of the society.
“We live in a country where there is multi-religious, multi-cultural and secular set up and no one can be forced or pressurized here. We are not France, we are not another country, so we have to accommodate each other,” Akhtar, who is also spokesman of People’s Democratic Party and Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) Coalition Government said.
He said sacking or banning ‘Abaya’ cannot be done in a State like Jammu and Kashmir. “But, I am sure, the management of that school is sensitive to this and we will convey this to them,” he informed the House.
Rashid, the Independent legislator, also raised the issue of the detention of two Kashmiri girls at Delhi airport while they were returning home from Bangladesh. The Minister replied by saying that there was some suspicion on the girls and that was why they were questioned.
The Minister said the incident of beating of girls by a teacher inside a Government hostel yesterday here is a serious and shameful incident. He said this after National Conference (NC) woman legislator Shameem Firdous raised the issue in the House.
“It is a very serious incident that has taken place yesterday. It is the most brutal thing that a teacher could have done for children and I, as Education Minister, hang my head in shame. I went to the hospital today. I went to the school,” said Akhtar.
He said the teacher who thrashed the students brutally seems to be a psychopath. “She has used her lathi in the most brutal way. If police or anyone else would have done this, I do not know how many commissions would have been framed. Seven girls have been hospitalized,” the Minister said.
He informed the House that most of the injured girls are recovering. “Some have fractures; two children are with plasters on their arms. One girl has tender abdomen, she has bled through her mouth. One other girl was in agonising pain having headache, she has received blows on her head,” he said.
The Minister for Education said the accused teacher has been placed under suspension and an FIR has been registered but she is absconding. “She has gone underground. I spoke to the SSP (Senior of Superintendent of Police) and the IGP (Inspector General of Police), we will have her. She has been changing her hideouts. Police has raided 3-4 places, but they have not been able to arrest her”, he added.
“Then whatever action will take place, and obviously, this is the sense of the House also as well as the entire society that such marauders, such psychopaths should not be part of our system,” the Government spokesman added.
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