Coaching centres in the Valley have been shut for five days, apparently to ensure peaceful Republic Day celebrations but hitting the studies of tens of thousands of students.

Education has already borne the brunt of the volatile situation since the abrogation of Jammu and Kashmir’s special status on August 5, first facing a month-long government clampdown and then a long protest shutdown.

Eventually, the educational institutions opened to hold exams in November before closing for the long winter vacation. They are expected to reopen in March. Till then, the students would have been slogging at the coaching centres, looking to make up for lost time.

Now, a “verbal order” has directed the coaching centres to close.

“Most coaching centres in the Valley operate in the civil areas of the city, in localities like Parraypora and Rajbagh. Around 55 coaching centres, where around 18,000 students study, have been directed to shut from August 22 to 26,” G.N. Var, president of an association of private schools and coaching centres in Kashmir, told The Telegraph.

“Students from across the Valley come to these coaching centres. Many of them live in hostels — they were asked to vacate them.”

Owners said that coaching centres in other parts of the Valley too had been asked to shut.

Var said it was difficult to understand the logic behind the decision, since many of the coaching centres are located several kilometres from the Sher-i-Kashmir Stadium, the main venue for the Republic Day events in Srinagar.

“It would have been better if they had held the coaching centres responsible for any (untoward) incident, rather than shutting them all. Many students living in the hostels have left for their homes while many others are staying with their friends,” Var said.

He said no written order had been issued.

“We were told (by the police) that they had orders from above to shut the centres. They gave us no reason but we infer it was done for security reasons in view of the Republic Day events,” he said.

Younis Malik, director of education in Kashmir, said the order had not gone out from his department but might have from some other arm of the administration. “They may have done it for law-and-order reasons,” he said.

Srinagar police chief Haseeb Mugal did not respond to calls from The Telegraph. Police sources said the centres had been asked to shut as a precaution against any law-and-order situation.

The father of a Class IX student who studies at one of these centres said the centre had sent him a text message not to send his son there for the next five days.

“Our children had stayed home after August 5. To compensate for the loss of studying time I had decided to send my son to a coaching centre. But now you have this draconian order shutting these centres,” he said.

A student said he and his friends heard a security vehicle in Parraypora locality announcing that the coaching centres would remain shut for five days.

Var said similar directions had been issued last year too ahead of the Republic Day celebrations but at the time the education department used to enjoy a say and had asked only the centres nearest to the Republic Day venue to close.

“Several centres had remained shut then too but only for three days. But this time there is a blanket ban for five days,” he said.