The Indian Army organised an educational tour for girls in Handwara District on Wednesday to strengthen the bond between the army and civilians.
A group of 20 girls will tour Mumbai, Pune and Delhi and visit all educational institutions during their visit.
"We are sending twenty girls on an all India tour. They will be going to Mumbai, Pune and Delhi and visiting all the educational institutions," said Principal of the Girls Higher Secondary School, Manzoor Ahmad.
The 21 Battalion of Rashtriya Rifles (RR) of Indian Army has organised this tour known as Sadhbhavana 'Watan ke Sair' (Visiting the country) for the schoolchildren of class XI.
A student, Rubeena Majeed, thanked the Indian Army and expressed happiness on being selected for the tour.
"We are very thankful to the army for giving us this opportunity of taking us on this tour. This will be beneficial for our future as well, will help us in increasing knowledge. This is a big opportunity for us that we are going to Mumbai, as we had never imagined that we will be able to go to Mumbai ever. They are taking us to Mumbai, Pune and Delhi," said Majeed.
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A sharp increase in the number of girl students was seen, years after normalcy returned to the region.
The Kashmir region has witnessed numerous militant attacks, insurgency and infiltration attempts from across the border in the last two decades.
The Indian Army has been launching a large number of military civic action programmes aiming at wining the hearts and minds of the people.
In 1998, Indian Army had launched 'Operation Sadbhavana' (Faith) for the residents of rural areas in Jammu and Kashmir.
Militants had created havoc by large scale destruction of government property and public assets like schools, bridges, electricity supply system causing severe hardships to locals.