A Class 2 student suffered a head injury when the school bus carrying him was attacked by stone-pelters in Shopian district of South Kashmir on Wednesday morning, triggering angry reactions from the chief minister and political leaders.
Police said the bus of a private school was attacked by stone-pelters in Zavooora area, injuring the student identified as Rehan Gorsai.
"Few miscreants surrounded the school bus and hurled stones at it, in which one student was injured. The area has been sanitised, search for stone pelters is underway and they will be arrested soon," Shailendra Kumar, Shopian senior superintendent of police, said.
The injured child was referred to SMHS Hospital where doctors attending on him stated his condition to be stable. The bus was carrying close to 35 students.
The incident evoked sharp reaction from Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti, who said perpetrators of this senseless and cowardly act will be brought to justice soon.
'Shocked and angered to hear of the attack on a school bus in Shopian. The perpetrators of this senseless and cowardly act will be brought to justice,' she tweeted.
Former Chief Minister Omar Abdullah condemned the attack on the school bus.
'How does pelting stones on school children or tourist buses help advance the agenda of these stone pelters? These attacks deserve our unequivocal condemnation & this tweet is mine,' Omar wrote on his Twitter handle.
Condemning the incident, Director General of Police S P Vaid said, "Complete madness how stone pelters are targeting young school children. These criminals will face the law."
National Conference spokesman Junaid Mattu also condemned the incident and took a dig at separatists, saying, "One would expect (Syed Ali Shah) Geelani and Mirwaiz (Umer Farooq) to take a conscientious call and condemn stone pelting while reserving the right to espouse their political ideologies through non-violence. You can't claim the moral high ground while refusing to condemn this unequivocally."
Father of the injured child said, "My son has been injured in stone pelting, this is against humanity. This could have been anyone's child."
With ANI inputs.
