I am very happy to go back to school, says Insha. . (Express Photo)
Insha Mushtaq, a teenage girl who was left blind after being shot at with pellets during the 2016 unrest in Jammu and Kashmir, on Wednesday resumed her education and took admission to Srinagar’s Delhi Public School.
The 17-year-old passed her Class X examination in January this year. She had written her exams in November 2017 at Mohammadiya Institution, a privately-run school at her home town in Shopian.
“I got hit by pellets in 2016…(and could not) continue my education for two years. Today I got admission to Class XI and I am going to school…I am very happy,” an excited Insha said, as she boarded the school bus wearing uniform.
“I am so happy that I am getting chance again to be in school among students,” she said, while thanking all those who prayed for her recovery.
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Insha’s father, Mushtaq Ahmad, told The Indian Express that an NGO, Centre for Peace and Justice, had helped his daughter to get admission to the school.
“When, in the morning, my daughter put her (school) uniform again, all of us in the family couldn’t control our emotions,” he said, adding that Insha along with her mother (Afrooza) will be staying at Rajbagh in Srinagar to pursue her studies.
“My daughter always wanted to get higher education, but when doctors told her she could not see, we had lost all hope,” Ahmad said.
Director of Centre for Peace and Justice, Nadir Ali, said while many people had come forward to help Insha, their aim was to rehabilitate her. “So, we though we should think beyond victimhood. And Insha’s education was our first goal…She had an ambition to become a doctor. After she lost her eyes, she couldn’t do so.’’
Ali said that when they started looking for schools where Insha could continue her education in Kashmir it was only DPS. “So we got her admitted here,” he said.
Executive member of the Centre for Peace and Justice, Akeel Rashid said over the next six months Insha would get a special training. “She will be taught English, maths, science, computers and Braille signs,” he said.
A DPS teacher said the school has a facility where Insha could get her education. “It will take her seven to eight months to get well-versed in the system,” the teacher said.