The incident came to light after opposition National Conference spokesman Junaid Azim Mattu uploaded a copy of the admit card on Twitter. (Source: @Junaid_Mattu/Twitter) The incident came to light after opposition National Conference spokesman Junaid Azim Mattu uploaded a copy of the admit card on Twitter. (Source: @Junaid_Mattu/Twitter)

An online prank is at the centre of Kashmir’s latest political row. It all started when the J&K’s Board of Professional Entrance Examination (BOPEE) issued an admit card which had the image of a cow instead of a person’s face. Soon afterwards, the National Conference was seeking an “explanation” from the Peoples Democratic Party.

The J&K Board of Professional Entrance Examinations issued this roll-number slip to a Cow after due verification. 1/n pic.twitter.com/7Qg51kbQFH — Junaid Azim Mattu (@Junaid_Mattu) May 2, 2015

According to the controller examination, BOPEE, Farooq Ahmad Mir, the Board can’t do much to prevent such pranks. “The entire process — from filling up an application form to generation of admit cards — is computer generated. There is an image recognition software, which does not differentiate between a human’s face and an animal’s picture. Someone has played a prank,” Mir explained. “We will act against the prankster after tracking down his IP address.”

However after an informal heads-up was sent to the Government, BOPEE was asked to take the record down from their website this morning. 3/n — Junaid Azim Mattu (@Junaid_Mattu) May 2, 2015

But that hasn’t done much to blunt the opposition attack. NC spokesman Junaid Azeem Mattu, who was the first to upload the picture of the admit card on Twitter, said on the website, “The board issued this roll number slip to a cow after due verification. I have both the provisional confirmation page for the applicant, Ms Kachir Gaw (brown cow), as well as details of the payment she made to BOPEE. Education Minister Mr Naeem Akhtar has some explaining to do.”

Brilliant. I wish Kachir Gaaw had turned up for the examination 😀 https://t.co/l5SeRclvZF — Omar Abdullah (@abdullah_omar) May 2, 2015

Mattu claims BOPEE issued an admit card in the name of a cow. As per the photo uploaded by him, the applicant’s name is Kachir Gaw (brown cow), daughter of Gur Dand (Bull). The admit card was for the entrance examination for diploma in polytechnic.

Following Mattu’s tweet, former chief minister and NC working president Omar Abdullah said, “Brilliant. I wish Kachir Gaaw had turned up for the examination.”

Akhtar said, “This is called computer illiteracy. They should know what is meant by ‘computer generated’. When they couldn’t find any issue of substance, they started raising these trivial issues”.

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