Hundreds of schools were ordered to close indefinitely in Kashmir on Wednesday after shelling by Indian and Pakistani troops in the disputed region killed 14 civilians in two days. Authorities on the Indian-administered side of Kashmir said nearly 300 schools had been ordered to close from Wednesday morning, following the death of eight civilians on Tuesday in mortar shelling along the highly militarized border. Officials on the Pakistani side said around 25 schools would be closed in the Nakyal sector for the rest of the week due to shelling by Indian forces which had killed six civilians since Monday. The closures represent another blow to a beleaguered education system already hit by widespread closures in Srinagar, the largest city in Indian-administered Kashmir, and arson attacks on schools. Eight civilians including two children were killed on Tuesday when mortar bombs hit two locations in the Samba and Rajouri sectors, in the Jammu region of the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir. "Nearly 300 schools, both private and government-run, have been asked to close down in Jammu, Samba and Kathua districts," Pawan Kotwal, a top official in Jammu, said. He said the border remained relatively calm overnight with only a few cases of cross-border firing in some areas. On Monday Pakistani authorities said an 18-month-old girl was among six civilians killed on its side of the border in firing by Indian forces in the Jammu region. Islamabad summoned a senior Indian diplomat to protest over the killings. The closure order in the Jammu region comes at a time when teaching at many government and private schools in Srinagar and elsewhere in the Kashmir Valley remains severely disrupted. Although schools are officially open, many pupils and teachers have been unable to attend class for months because of a 52-day-long curfew and a continuing shutdown called by separatist groups, that has severely hit normal life. The region has suffered its deadliest violence in the last six years -- with at least 90 people killed in street protests triggered by the killing of a popular separatist leader by Indian forces in Kashmir in July. Nearly 30 schools have been torched in the Kashmir Valley since July but no one has been arrested for the arson attacks. Meanwhile, Pakistani media said on Wednesday that the authorities may expel two Indian diplomats in Islamabad for spying. Pakistani officials believe one of the two Indian men worked for the RAW spy agency, while the other spied for India's Intelligence Bureau, said Pakistani Geo TV and most other channels, citing anonymous sources. In New Delhi, Vikas Swarup, the spokesman for India's Ministry of External Affairs, said that the ministry was "aware" of the media reports. "We have yet to receive any official communication in the matter," Swarup added. — Agencies
