Srinagar: Political parties in Kashmir on Saturday strongly criticised the J&K government’s decision to take over 215 schools affiliated with the banned Jamaat-e-Islami (JeI).
Peoples’ Conference chief and MLA Handwara Sajad Lone accused the government of “shamelessness,” saying, “215 schools forcibly taken over by the J&K Government… They are setting new standards in servility. The elected government is a party to all such acts — from terminations to crackdowns — and has always been the A team.”
PDP leader Iltija Mufti said the move reflects a historical pattern. “Every time the National Conference got a brute majority, their first target has always been Jamaat — in 1977 and now again, at the cost of thousands of students’ futures,” she wrote on X. She criticised Education Minister Sakina Itoo’s clarification on the order, calling it a “hazy, illogical U-turn” and part of the NC’s decades-long policy of targeting Jamaat.
PDP’s Waheed Para, MLA from Pulwama, highlighted that one of the Centre’s major achievements after the 2019 abrogation of Article 370 was JeI’s participation in the 2024 elections, including fielding candidates. “What force could not achieve, the democratic process did,” he noted. However, he warned that book bans and school takeovers risk undoing that progress. “Such knee-jerk actions suppress those seeking reintegration. The government must provide space, constitutional guarantees, and strengthen democracy — the only weapon yet to be fully tested in J&K,” Para added.
