On October 30, 2016, a  Government Higher Secondary at Kabamarg-Diyalgam of Anantnag was damaged in a fierce blaze, becoming the 25th school to have been torched over the past six weeks.

The fire started mysteriously at around 4 pm, from a class room on the second floor, and soon engulfed the building. Fire and emergency services were rushed to the spot and though the fire was contained, there was extensive damage. Smoke billowing from the building drifted across the village, drawing a large number of people to the scene but no one was any wiser as far as the perpetrators were concerned.

Earlier, late into the Saturday evening, unknown persons had attempted to torch the Government Higher Secondary School at Mirhama village, in the adjacent Kulgam district by hurling a petrol bomb. However, the building didn’t suffer any major damage.

Who is behind these burnings? Nobody can say with certainty, but everyone there are the usual suspects. The school burnings are framed by a troubled political context that has been morphing since the killing of popular Hizbul Mujahideen commander, Burhan Wani, on July 8, 2016.  For more than 100 days now, everything has been in shutdown mode, including the schools. According to police data, the Valley has witnessed 2,249 stone pelting incidents so far. The first day of the each month has witnessed an average of five to ten pro-Azadi processions, which have seen an average of 5,000 people participating. Though rallies and stone-throwings continue sporadically, their number and intensity have abated. Normalcy, however, is yet to be restored and the prevailing tension continues to exact a heavy toll. So far, 94 people have been killed, several hundred blinded and over 14,000 injured. More than 7,000 have been arrested and around 480 charged with the Public Safety Act, a law which sanctions incarceration for six months without trial (extendable endlessly) with its repeated invocation.

Schools entered the ongoing contentious discourse in a big way in early October when the state’s education minister Naeem Akhtar decided to go ahead with the annual examinations, ignoring the fact that the students had lost half their academic session to the ongoing unrest. This triggered a strong response from a significant section of the  student community who wanted exams deferred to March so that they would have adequate time to prepare. The Government refused to change its mind and the Hurriyat described this decision – to hold examination as per the normal schedule – as a too-clever-by-half attempt to give the impression of order restored, and ruled against it.

Caught in the tug-of-war were the students. This triggered student protests in parts of the Valley against annual examinations, with some carrying placards reading “No exams till Azadi”.

The burning of schools followed soon after. Initially, people dismissed them as unconnected, rare occurences – a reflection of just how chaotic Kashmir is at present. But soon, one after another school went up in flames. And not only in a specific area –which would have been easier to explain and investigate – but across the Valley, in unrelated places set apart by large distances.  For example, Kulgam district in South and Kupwara in North, which both saw schools being torched, are separated by 150 kilometres.  Seven buildings were burnt or damaged in Kulgam. Three in Budgam, two in Bandipore, three in Baramulla, two in Shopian and one each in Kupwara, Anantnag, Ganderbal and Pulwama districts.

If anything, this organised, coordinated torching of schools can’t be traced to the angry students not wanting to sit in the examination. They are separated by large distances, and they won’t and can’t communicate the instructions to each other on phone (which could be easily traced by the police). They are also hobbled by the lack of mobile Internet, which has been barred since July 8. Anyway burning of a fewer schools would by no means put off examination, the alleged cause of the arson.

The development is nevertheless sinister. One thing, however, that can’t be ruled out is a definite design in the burnings. There is an organisation behind it.

So, who is pulling the strings? It is here that we enter a very tricky territory: for anyone trying to make a sense of it,  Kashmir turns into a riddle.  The conspiracy theories loom large and the truth slips through the cracks.

In case of school burnings, there are three potential actors: separatist groups, autonomously acting protesters and the state government agencies.

True, Hurriyat was very slow to dissociate from the arson. It was only when 19 schools had been burnt that Hurriyat condemned it, releasing a tame statement or two when it was expected to loudly condemn it  after the first school was gutted.  And by the way, Hurriyat has yet to condemn the torching of more than 60 vehicles for allegedly violating the Hurriyat calendar. In contrast, the schools that were burnt weren’t even open.

Did protesters indulge in the deed? Unlikely, unless they have developed an organisational capacity independent of the Hurriyat.  One explanation that is often bandied about is the growing radicalisation of the Kashmiri youth. While this may be true, there is no objective study to back it up. Anyway, radicalisation has been reduced to a propaganda label than an intellectual term that explains a certain regressive social change.

Another favourite theory in Kashmir which explains the attacks on schools is the ‘invisible hand of the government’. This one resonates with a large section of the people. Separatist groups often allege that the government does it “to project Kashmir as a Talibanised society”. And that it comes easy and cheap to do so, given the current climate of Islamophobia around the world.

However, in an important breakthrough in the case, the police on October 31 arrested 14 people for being allegedly involved in burning of schools in south Kashmir and hunt is on to nab others. There has not been any explanation of their motivations.

Meanwhile, caught between these disparate explanations (none of which actually offer no answers), schools continue to burn.