Srinagar, Jan 13 (NVI) Continuing the drive to weed out subversive elements in the administration, Jammu and Kashmir Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha today terminated the services of five more government employees for suspected terror links.
With these sackings, services of 85 government employees have been terminated by the Lt Governor’s administration since the year 2020 after it was found during surveillance that they were working for terrorist groups.
“The move is aimed at targeting the roots of the terror ecosystem and its infrastructure within government machinery,” said an official while justifying the decision.
The dismissed employees include a teacher, a laboratory technician, an assistant lineman in Public Health Department, a field worker in the Forest Department and a driver in the Health Department.
These employees were terminated under Article 311 (2) (c) of the Constitution.
The provision allows for the dismissal or removal of a civil servant without a formal inquiry if the President or the Governor is satisfied that it is not expedient to hold the inquiry in the interest of the security of the State.
According to the dossier against the terminated employees, Mohammad Ishfaq, who was appointed as Rehbar-e-Taleem in the school education department and later confirmed as a teacher in 2013, was allegedly working for Pakistan-based terror outfit Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT).
His activities were put under surveillance by security and intelligence agencies, and sustained monitoring revealed that he was helped in the terror activities by certain Over Ground Workers (OGWs) of LeT.
Ishfaq was in regular contact with LeT terrorist commander Mohammad Amin alias Abu Khubaib who operates from Pakistan.
He was given an active operational role by the LeT and was tasked to execute the killing of a police officer in Doda in early 2022. However, he was arrested by J&K police before he could execute the plan.
The terror links of Tariq Ahmad Rah, a government lab technician, emerged during the probe by State Investigation Agency (SIA) into the escape of Hizbul terrorist Amin Baba to Pakistan in 2005.
It was found that Rah helped Amin Baba in fleeing to Pakistan from where he is currently operating and planning terror activities in India, officials said.
It was found that Rah had come under the influence of terror outfit Hizb-ul-Mujahideen from a very young age.
Bashir Ahmad Mir, Assistant Lineman in the PHE department since 1996, was an active Over Ground Worker of LeT in the Gurez area of Bandipora.
He was covertly facilitating terrorist activities in the hinterland of Gurez since long by guiding the movement of terrorists, providing logistical support, sharing information on the movement of security forces and providing shelter to terrorists, the officials said.
Farooq Ahmad Bhat, a field worker in the Forest Department, was actively working with Hizb-ul-Mujahideen.
He was also informally working as a personal assistant of a former MLA with ties to Hizbul Mujahideen.
Mohammad Yousuf, a driver in the Health and Medical Education Department, was in regular contact with terrorists, particularly Bashir Ahmad Bhat, a Pakistan-based Hizb terrorist.
“On the directions of Bashir, Yousuf established links with Hizb cadres and operatives sitting in Pakistan and entrusted with core tasks, including procurement of arms and ammunition and transporting funds in the areas of Ganderbal District,” an official said.
On July 20, 2024, police intercepted a vehicle in which Yousuf and his associate Eashan Hamid were travelling and recovered one pistol, ammunition, a grenade and Rs five lakh.(NVI)
