Troops ‘force’ students, trainees to leave institutions

Tariq Mir
Bandipora, Jan 11: In times of troop evacuation, students and industrial trainees are ‘forced’ to leave their institutions and make way for the troopers.
Shagufta, a trainee at ITI Bandipora, said that after Union defence minister A K Antony promised evacuation of troops from educational institutions and hospitals, troopers had occupied the Industrial Training Institute Bandipora.“We were expecting Army to vacate the ITI instead they are harassing us threatening there would be a suicide attack on the ITI. They are compelling us to leave the ITI buildings for them,” she added.The trainees at the ITI also ridiculed the Governor S K Sinha for his recent joint address to the state legislature at Jammu.In his 75-minute January 7 address, Sinha had claimed that troops had vacated all educational institutions and hospitals before November 30, the deadline set by Union defence minister.In Bandipora many departmental buildings like Revenue, Forest, Fisheries, ITI and town hall are still under the occupation of troops.“The departmental buildings are occupied by troops for the past 15 years,” said Muhuammad Ishaq who runs a canteen at Tehsil Office Bandipora.“The government and army are befooling people on troop evacuation,” said Talib Hussain, a technician at ITI Bandipora. Commenting on the recent statement of Governor S K Sinha, Talib Hussain said, “It is strange that the Governor is indulging in a misinformation campaign. But he cannot fox people with blatant lies.”In 1989 Tehsil Office Bandipora was occupied by BSF. It continues to be occupied by troopers. Now the office is under the occupation of 51 battalion BSF. The employees at the office said, “The main buildings of the department are occupied by BSF.”The buildings of Forest department including Range and DFO office have been occupied by BSF and RR.The IIT Bandipora is presently occupied by 57RRThe private property also continues to be occupied by troops in this district. Hundreds of acres of land is under their occupation in villages like Kharpora, Bhutooo, Labkachaal, Ajas, Sumler and Kaloosa.The landlords accuse the government of not giving them sufficient amount in the form of compensation for their occupied land.