SRINAGAR: Almost like Taliban’s offensive against education in Pakistan and Afghanistan, terror groups in Kashmir are destroying schools and ensuring their continued shut down. Twenty schools have been wrecked in the last three months of unrest.The schools in Valley have remained shut since the killing of Hizb commander Burhan wani in an encounter with security forces on July 8.Officials said that around two million Kashmiri students have been prevented from going to schools across the Kashmir Valley. The students of border areas like Gurez, Tangdhar, Uri in Kashmir and Jammu and Ladakh regions have been attending their schools without disruption though. That is because the separatist influence is limited to the Valley.According to official figures, seventeen government schools and three private schools have been fully damaged in fire. Some of the schools that were completely damaged include Middle School Kanjikelam in Yaripora zone of Kulgam district and Government High School Botengo Anantnag district and Government High School Parigam in Pulwama district. High School Kanipora in Kukgam zone, High School Katrasoo and Higher Secondary Bugam in Yaripora zone and Middle School Watoo in zone DH pora were partially damaged.Pakistan-sponsored stone pelting brigades on Tuesday set two more government schools on fire, one at Noorbagh area of Srinagar city and a higher secondary at Aishmuqam in Anantnag district.Miscreants on October 4, attacked school board of education building with a petrol bomb at Bemina when the state authorities announced to conduct board exams which are scheduled for coming November. Stone pelters mercilessly beat up the principal of a higher secondary school at Bandipora in the first week of August after he tried to open the school. The school principal Abdul Rashid was critically injured.The closure of schools and colleges has also been enforced by the diktats issued by the separatist conglomerate Hurriyat and militant outfits.Pakistan based Lashkar-e-Taiba on September 27 issued a warning to Jammu and Kashmir education minister Naeem Akhtar for trying to resume schools and colleges in the Valley. Lashkar spokesman Abdullah Ghaznavi quoted LeT operation chief Mehmood Shah and said: “Education Minister Naeem Akhtar should desist from trying to break the shutdown forcefully as Kashmiris are educated enough to decide what is good or bad for them. If Naeem Akhtar does not budge, we will initiate action against him.”Akhtar in an open letter later asked pro-Pakistan separatist leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani to keep education out of the discord between him and the government and allow educational institutions to run. But his plea had no effect on the separatists or terror groups.Hundreds of parents have sent their wards to cities like Jammu and Delhi for studies after they lost three months of schooling.