May 31, 2002	Friday	Rabi-ul-Awwal 18,1423

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MUZAFFARABD, May 30: Authorities in Azad Jammu and Kashmir said on Thursday they were closing public schools in the area from Saturday because of heavy artillery and mortar fire by the Indian troops across the Line of Control (LoC).

“Indian troops are targeting civilian populations living in border areas so we are closing the schools from June 1,” AJK Education Secretary Raja Arif Khan told Reuters.

“Even the schools located in higher altitude areas, which have winter vacations instead of summer holidays, are being closed,” he said. Summer vacations usually start in mid-June.

Mr Khan said 660 primary and high schools in the frontline border villages had been closed 10 days ago after some of them had been hit by firing from across the LoC.

“Now we have decided to close down all schools indefinitely because villages in areas far away from the border are also in the range of Indian artillery.”

Officials said a primary school’s pupil had been wounded when a mortar bomb fired by Indian troops had hit the school building at the border town of Chakothi 12 days ago.

Last week, a girls college was damaged by shelling at the southern Khoi Ratta town.

Dozens of people have been killed and thousands made homeless on both sides of the border, where the armies of the two countries have traded heavy fire since tension escalated after an attack on an Indian army camp in Kashmir on May 14.