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Kargil was in the news again Tuesday.
The youth in the town angered by the recent shifting of the higher secondary school to the town's outskirts ventilated their anger on Kashmir Chief Minister Dr Farooq Abdullah.
Abdullah had to be escorted out of the town along with half a dozen ministers and officials including Chief Secretary Ashok Jaitley without addressing a scheduled public meeting in the public park as tension mounted. The police had to resort to a baton charge and use tear gas to disperse the students.
The agitating students, joined by the hundeds of locals, took out a procession shouting anti-Abdullah and anti- government slogans. They also torched ruling National Conference flags. The agitated crowd later attacked the make-shift podium in the park erected for the chief minister's speech and torched it.
Police fired dozens of teargas shells and used batons. A local reached by telephone said several students were injured in the baton charge. "They ruthlessly beat students and the locals. We are facing hardships. There are no teachers in the schools. Corruption in government departments is rampant. We are neglected," he added.
As tension mounted police and paramilitary forces were deployed in strength to restore order.
The district administration later escorted the chief minister and other officials to the airport, from where they flew back to Srinagar without addressing the public meeting.
A senior state official in Kargil said on phone that agitated students demanding a bus service to the new school and concession in fares staged a sit in at the public park. Abdullah flew to Kargil along with senior ministers and top state officials for a joint meeting of the cabinet and the district development board.
Shopkeepers also pulled down their shutters to protest the police action.
Earlier at a meeting chaired by the chief minister, it was decided that the infrastructure damaged during the Kargil conflict would be rebuilt and allocated Rs 30 million for the purpose.
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