BHUBANESWAR: After living in fear of attacks from Pakistan for three days, another batch of students from Odisha have set out from conflict-affected regions of Kashmir.
The office of chief resident commissioner (CRC), Odisha, at New Delhi coordinated evacuation of seven Odisha students from Sher-e-Kashmir University of Agricultural Sciences and Technology (SKUAST), both Shalimar and Sopore campuses, and 20 students from the Central University of Kashmir (CUK) at Ganderbal district of Jammu and Kashmir on Saturday.
“Ganderbal is a relatively safer place and we did not hear or see any attacks in the last three days but there were reports of drone and missile interceptions in areas nearby and everywhere else in the Kashmir valley. Since this is war and nothing can be predicted, we had approached the Odisha government to take us back to our state,” said Priyadarshini Kuanr, a 3rd year BEd student of Central University of Kashmir.
The students added that while there were close to 50 students from Odisha in the CUK, 30 of them have left Kashmir in the last three days by making their own arrangements. Similarly, Odia students of SKUAST said that following Operation Sindoor, the threat of being caught in the attacks had increased manifold. “Since all the educational institutions were asked to close down on safety grounds, we decided to return to Odisha like the other outstation students,” said a student.
Buses were arranged for them by their educational institutes and local administration on Saturday. The CRC office informed that the CUK students will reach Delhi in bus on Sunday night. The SKUAST students will be put up at different accommodation units of Vaishno Devi Shrine Board and brought to Delhi in a special train on Monday for their onward journey to Odisha.
“The CRC office is in constant touch with students’ groups and the Jammu and Kashmir administration. It will receive the students at Delhi, provide them transit stay and book their train tickets for onward journey to Odisha in coordination with the Ministry of Railways,” a release from CRC office stated. Meanwhile, the last batch of Odia students from Central Sanskrit University at Jammu, who were evacuated on May 7, returned to the state on Saturday. A few other Odia students from Mohali and Amritsar will leave for Odisha from Delhi on Sunday.