In signs of normality returning, there was huge traffic rush in the Kashmir Valley on Tuesday for the first time in months as Class 10 students appeared for the annual secondary school leaving certificate examination. The inter-district private transport services also picked up during the day.
All this put paid to separatists’ hopes of enforcing their shutdown call.
According to the Directorate of School Education, 55,500 students — or 98.61 per cent of Class 10 students — appeared in the examination. There were 777 absentees.
Ahead of the exams, about 37 schools in the State have been attacked and damaged by arsonists.
Another arson incidentIn yet another incident, a government school in Kandi area of Baramulla was set ablaze at 8 p.m. on Monday. The teachers on guard put out the flames.
Public transport had gone off the road immediately after militant Burhan Wani was killed on July 8. The separatists’ weekly protest calendars had also brought daily life to a standstill.
