MUZAFFARABAD:
Authorities in Azad Jammu and Kashmira closed more than 1,000 religious schools on Thursday for fear of possible military actions of India in retaliation for the deadly attack of last week.
Fearing a military escalation, the authorities closed more than 1,000 religious schools in AJK. “We have announced a 10 -day break for all Madrasas in Kashmir,” said Hafiz Nazeer Ahmed, head of the Cashmiro Religious Affairs Department.
A source from the department said it was “due to border tensions and conflict potential.”
Around 1.5 million people live near the AJK control line, where residents are preparing simple underground bunkers and mud walls, reinforced with concrete if they could pay it.
“For a week we have been living with constant fear, particularly in relation to the safety of our children,” Iphtikhar Ahmad Mir, a 44 -year -old merchant in Chakothi in the control line.
“We make sure they don’t roam their school and come home.”
Emergency service workers in Muzaffrabad have also begun to train schoolchildren about what to do if India attacks.
“We have learned to dress an injured person, how to take someone on a stretcher and how to turn off a fire,” said Ali Raza, 11.
In Muzaffrabad, training sessions have already taken place in 13 schools, according to emergency workers.
“In an emergency, schools are the first to be affected, so we are starting evacuation training with schoolchildren,” Abdul Basit Moughal, a coach of the Pakistan Civil Defense Directorate, told AFP.
The agency will display its rescue workers in the schools that border the LOC in the next few days.
