Muzaffar Wani unfurled the national flag on the premises of a government school in Tral.
Among the pictures of flag hoisting in Kashmir that were widely shared on social media is Muzaffar Wani unfurling the national flag at a government school in Tral. Muzaffar Wani is the father of Burhan Wani, terrorist commander of Hizbul Mujahideen whose killing led to massive civilian unrest in the Valley in 2016.
Wani is a headmaster in a government school at Tral in Pulwama. As part of the "Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav", the union territory administration has directed all departments including the education department to ensure that flag hoisting is held in all offices on Independence Day.
"Independence Day will be celebrated in all schools. Directions should be conveyed to all the CEOs, Principals/ headmasters to host national flag at all schools. Videos and photos of the function will be uploaded on google drive," a government order said.
There are 23,000 government schools across Jammu and Kashmir. But not many held the flag hoisting function.
In Srinagar, an education officer said that out of 120 schools in his zone, only three schools held the flag hoisting function.
For the last one week, schools teachers and medical facilities were asked to prepare for the independence day functions.
At Sher-e- Kashmir Institute of Medical Sciences, the biggest health facility in Kashmir, tricolour was hoisted by the director of the institute. A senior army officer is also seen the picture.
The government also relaxed Covid restrictions on gatherings for August 15 functions.
While schools are closed due to pandemic, they were opened for Independence Day preparations. The government has also issued circular on flag code for hosting the national flag. The flag code of India is a set of laws and guidelines governing the display of tricolour.
The flag hoisting functions like never before in Kashmir are seen as an attempt by the government to showcase that Kashmir has changed since the abrogation of its special status on August 5, 2019.
During the peak of separatism, security forces had made it mandatory for passenger vehicles in north Kashmir to carry national flag on August 15. But the practice was abandoned after questions were raised over forced nationalism.
The biggest Independence Day function in J&K was held Shere- e -Kashmir cricket stadium in Srinagar where Lt Governor Manoj Sinha unfurled the tricolour.