School Bus Carrying 35 Students Pelted With Stones in Kashmir's Shopian, 2 Kids Injured

Srinagar: Two students of a private school were injured on Wednesday when their school bus was attacked by stone-pelters in Shopian district of Jammu and Kashmir, police said.

Police sources said that the bus, belonging to Rainbow International School, came under attack in Zavoora area of Shopian on Wednesday. It was carrying 35 students.

The injured students were rushed to SKIMS Hospital, where one of them was discharged while another, a class II student, was referred to Srinagar for further treatment.

Shopian district was observing a shutdown against the killing of two militants, including a commander Sameer Tiger, and a civilian in an encounter at Drabgam in neighbouring Pulwama district.

Taking to Twitter, Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti expressed “shock and anger". She assured that the perpetrators of this "senseless and cowardly" act will be brought to justice.

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.

Abdullah lamented the fact that some of the stone throwers were not making good use of the amnesty granted to them.

“The amnesty granted to stone-pelters was meant to encourage more reasonable behaviour but some of these goons are determined to use the opportunity given to them to just pelt more stones," said Abdullah.

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."