Opposition in Kashmir to dismissal of government employees for terror links is disturbing

LG action on government employees with terror links

Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) Lieutenant Governor (LG) Manoj Sinha on February 15, 2025, dismissed from service three government employees, including a jailed policeman, for their alleged terror links. The sacked employees were identified as police constable Firdous Ahmad Bhat; a teacher in the School Education Department, Mohammad Ashraf Bhat; and an orderly in the Forest Department Nisar Ahmad Khan. Khan was earlier arrested in connection with the killing of National Conference (NC) minister Ghulam Hasan Bhat and two policemen in 2000. The termination of these employees came close on the heels of two back-to-back security review meetings held by the LG in the twin capital cities of Srinagar and Jammu, directing the security agencies to “intensify anti-terror operations” and “neutralize terrorists and terror ecosystem.”

The officials said the LG invoked Article 311 (2) (c) of the Constitution to terminate the services of these three employees after an investigation by law enforcement and intelligence agencies clearly established their terror links. Article 311 (2) (c) empowers the government to dismiss from service employees without an inquiry if “the President or the Governor/LG, as the case may be, is satisfied that in the interest of the security of the state, it is not expedient to hold such inquiry.” This law was extended to J&K after the abrogation of its special status (Article 370) on August 5, 2019.

As many as 79 government employees, including university, college, and school teachers, policemen, and revenue department officials, were dismissed after 2021 when the J&K administration constituted a Task Force charged with the responsibility of scrutinizing government employees suspected of activities requiring action under Article 311 (2) (c). Five out of 79 government employees with terror links were dismissed after October 16, 2024, when Omar Abdullah took over as J&K Chief Minister for the second time.

Reflecting on the dismissal of these employees, the concerned officials said that the dismissed policeman Firdous Ahmad Bhat, who was arrested in May 2024, was initially appointed as a Special Police Officer (during the PDP-Congress rule) in 2005 and subsequently promoted to a constable in 2011, (when the NC-Congress coalition was in power in J&K.) Currently, lodged in Kot Bhalwal Jail, Jammu, Firdous Ahmad Bhat was posted in a sensitive position in the Electronic Surveillance Unit in the J&K Police but started working for the terror outfit Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT). However, he got exposed when two terrorists — Waseem Shah and Adnan Beigh — were arrested in Anantnag, Kashmir, with a pistol and a hand grenade as they were “planning to attack non-local civilians and tourists.”

During the interrogation, Firdous Ahmad Bhat revealed his “sinister design” which led to the recovery of a sizable quantity of arms, including pistols, ammunition, and explosives, from his residential quarter in the Police Housing Colony in Srinagar and a newly constructed house in Mattan, Anantnag.

According to the officials, “3 kg of charas was also recovered from his residence which was dropped by Pakistan-based LeT terrorist Sajid Jutt alias Saifullah through a drone in (the Jammu’s) Samba district a few days earlier.”

“Using his police constable cover, he was transporting arms, ammunition, and explosives for terrorists and investigation also revealed that he was also working for Hizbul Mujahideen’s Commander Khursheed Dar and LeT terrorist Hamza Bhai and Abu Zarar besides Jutt. He not only provided classified information about security forces movement, collection, storage, and delivery of arms ammunition but also guided terror attacks,” the officials said.

The officials further said: that Firdous Ahmad Bhat was also “found involved in an attack on a police party in 2020 which led to the killing of sub-inspector Ashraf Bhat, an attack on a group of tourists in Pahalgam, Kashmir, on May 18, 2024 which left two persons injured. He was also involved in radicalizing and luring the youth to join terror ranks besides using terrorists to blackmail government officials, including his colleagues and businessmen.”

As for Mohammad Ashraf Bhat, a resident of Reasi, Jammu, the officials said that he was appointed as ‘Rehbar-e-Taleem’ teacher in 2008 and later regularised in June 2013, and he was affiliated with LeT. “For many years his activities were undetected but eventually came to light in 2022 and he was arrested and lodged in the district jail, Reasi.” “During the course of the investigation, it was revealed that Mohammad Ashraf Bhat’s handler was the most wanted LeT terrorist Mohd Qasim, who is based in Pakistan. The LeT found him to be very useful because as a teacher Mohammad Ashraf Bhat was best placed to radicalize youth and carry out terror activities. He helped LeT to raise finances for terror activities and coordinated transport of arms, ammunition, and explosives.”

Regarding Nisar Ahmad Khan, the police authorities said that he joined the Forest Department in 1996 as a helper and was currently posted as an orderly at the forest range office, Verinag (Anantnag). “He was found working for Hizbul Mujahideen…His links with the outfit first came to light in the year 2000 when a landmine blast in Anantnag killed the then (NC leader and) power minister Ghulam Hasan Bhat and two policemen…Nisar Ahmad Khan and another accused had provided logistical support to the terrorists to carry out the attack. He also helped in smuggling RDX used in the blast…He was arrested and charge-sheeted but later acquitted in 2006 due to ‘witnesses backtracking, intimidating environment inside and outside the courts.’ However, despite his acquittal in 2006, he continued his work for the terror group. His role was once again exposed in 2016 when he played a central role during the Valley’s unrest following the killing of Hizbul terrorist Burhan Wani…He also mobilized mobs and youth for stone pelting and arranged weapons to attack security forces and is named in four FIRs. After the killing of another terrorist Yawar Nisar Wagay in 2017, he once again played a key role in organizing violent protests and was subsequently detained under the J&K Public Safety Act (PSA) for eight months,” the concerned authorities said while giving details about the dangerous credentials of Nisar Ahmad Khan.[1]

The J&K PSA was promulgated in 1978 by Omar Abdullah’s grandfather Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah. It provides for administrative detention of up to two years without a trial “in the case of persons acting in any manner prejudicial to the security of the state,” and for administrative detention of up to one year where “any person is acting in any manner prejudicial to the maintenance of public order”.

Omar, Mirwaiz, Mufti, Lone, Tarigami on same page

The dismissal of Firdous Ahmad Bhat, Mohammad Ashraf Bhat, and Nisar Ahmad Khan stung Kashmiri Muslim leaders, separatists included. In fact, Chief Minister Omar Abdullah, APHC chairman Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, PDP chief and former Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti, separatist-turned-politician, former minister and MLA Sajad Lone, and CPIM state secretary and MLA from Kashmir’s Kulgam Mohammad Yousuf Tarigami all joined hands on the same day and denounced the dismissal of these three government employees. Mirwaiz urged the elected representatives to raise their voices against the action taken by the LG. Mehbooba Mufti and her party went to the extent of using the dismissal of these employees as an opportunity to tear into Omar Abdullah and lower his image in the eyes of Kashmiri Muslims. Sajad Lone didn’t lag behind. He warned the authorities that such actions were fraught with dangerous ramifications.

What exactly did Omar Abdullah, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, Mehbooba Mufti, Sajad Lone, and Mohammad Yousaf Tarigami say while denouncing the LG’s action? Questioning what he called the arbitrary dismissal of government employees by the LG, Omar Abdullah said that “the law says that ‘every accused person is innocent until proven guilty’ in the court.”

“If there is proof against them (dismissed employees) and they have been given an opportunity to clear the allegations but failed if such steps are taken without hearing them, the law says that every person accused of any crime is considered innocent until proven guilty…There should be a court hearing and if they fail to prove their innocence, take whatever action they want,” Omar Abdullah told reporters on the sidelines of a function in the holy town Katra, Jammu.[2]

Condemning the termination of these employees, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq asked: “Do the rulers want to remove all Kashmiris slowly and steadily from government services and render them jobless?” He also said that it was the “duty of the elected representatives to take up this issue urgently with the concerned (authorities) as they have committed in their manifesto this harassment.”[3]

Earlier on September 30, 2024, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq had also asked the Omar Abdullah-led government to take measures to stop the “injustice” of dismissing employees over terror links and reinstate all those who had been terminated. He had said: “Two more government employees terminated by the stroke of a pen without any legal recourse! Families were rendered destitute before the onset of harsh winters. Punishment and fear are the hallmarks of an authoritarian mindset that has been ruling here.” His remarks came a day after two government employees were dismissed from service by LG Manoj Sinha for terror links.[4]

Like Omar Abdullah, Mehbooba Mufti also termed the dismissal of these three government employees as arbitrary. Taking on the LG and Omar Abdullah-led NC government, she said: “Arbitrary and summary dismissals of government employees have become a daily occurrence since 2019. What is perhaps most surprising and puzzling is that it continues unabated despite an elected government in power that had promised to put an end to such practices once in office…People had pinned their hopes on the new government expecting at least some relief through vigorous advocacy of these issues with the LG.”[5]

However, it was Mehbooba Mufti’s spokesperson and former legislator Firdous Ahmed Tak, who launched a scathing attack on Omar Abdullah, his party, and his government. He went to the extent of accusing Omar Abdullah and his NC of working in tandem with the BJP/Narendra Modi government. He, inter-alia, said: “It is now evident why the National Conference played a key role in dismantling the Gupkar Alliance — the last collective platform resisting the authoritarian BJP regime. With nearly 50 MLAs in the assembly, this party is enabling the BJP-led Union Government to persist in its assault on the common masses. The continuous termination of employees on flimsy grounds, the misuse of the Public Safety Act to suppress dissent, and the normalization of everything the BJP did post-(August 4) 2019 are the heavy costs the people are paying for electing this party (NC) to power…At this critical juncture, the least we needed was a government with a spine to stand up for J&K.”[6]

Gupkar Alliance was formed by the Kashmir-based parties, including the NC, the PDP, the Congress, the CPIM, the Awami National Conference (ANC), and the Peoples Conference (PC), at the Srinagar’s Gupkar residence of Farooq Abdullah. It was formed on August 4, 2019, to protect the J&K’s special status, or to protect Articles 370 and 35A. The Alliance was also called the People’s Alliance for Gupkar Declaration (PAGD).

Sajad Lone termed the dismissal of these government employees by the LG as a deliberate attempt at disempowering Kashmiri Muslims and said that the Narendra Modi government hated them. “This will not work. More than termination it is disdain and contempt of Delhi towards Kashmiris (read Muslims), that’s revealed through these actions. These actions have not worked in the past. They will not work in the future. It will only widen the gulf and make it even more vicious,” Sajad Lone said.[7]

As for Mohammad Yousuf Tarigami, he said the arbitrary dismissals reflected sheer injustice and denial of due process. “The LG administration terminated three more employees without giving them a chance to be heard. The arbitrary dismissals reflect sheer injustice and denial of due process. Depriving people of their livelihood instead of creating job opportunities has become a disturbing norm,” he said.[8]

More significantly, on September 28, 2021, NC president and former Chief Minister Farooq Abdullah had virtually defended the induction of persons with terror links into government service while taking on the LG, who on September 22 dismissed from service six government employees, including two policemen, for their links with terrorists. The furious Farooq Abdullah had then said: “The government should stop it. The militancy will not reduce. It will only increase and create more problems for them (government)…The previous governments gave jobs to the people so that they could earn a living. Now, if they (the government) are sacking them, what will their children do? How will they meet everyday needs?”[9]

Matter of grave concern

Panun Kashmir, frontline organization of the persecuted and hounded-out Kashmiri Hindus, only hit the nail on the head on July 17, 2024, when it, among other things, said: “Internal subversion has been one of the foremost support structures of separatism and terrorism in J&K” and endorsed the J&K Director General of Police R R Swain’s statement that “Pakistan has infiltrated the civil society in the Union Territory.”[10]

On July 15, 2024, Rashmi Ranjan Swain publicly blamed regional politics in the Valley for Pakistan’s successful’ infiltration into the Kashmiri civil society and asserted that so-called mainstream political parties in Kashmir cultivated leaders of terror networks and sometimes directly to further their electoral prospects.

“Pakistan successfully infiltrated all important aspects of civil society, thanks to so-called mainstream or regional politics in the valley. There is ample evidence to show that many had owned the art of running with the hare and hunting with the hound, which left both the common man and the security bewildered, frightened, and confused…Visiting homes of terrorists killed by security forces and expressing sympathy for them in public was ‘normal’. While the elimination of new recruits in terrorism was allowed and tacitly encouraged, those who facilitated recruitment and arranged finances were never investigated…SP (Superintendant of Police) rank officers were arrested and put in jails alongside terrorists, for crimes they had never committed,” he had, inter-alia, said.[11]

What the DGP R R Swain, who was described as a “resolute officer dedicated to rooting out terror from within the system, leading the fight against terror financing, narco-terrorism, and identifying and taking action against individuals undermining the system from with”, said had irked Kashmiri Muslim politicians, including Omar Abdullah and Mehbooba Mufti. They accused the DGP of “fixing things politically.”

Omar Abdullah had said: “Leave politics to politicians. The DGP sahib is stepping into politics. His job is to improve the situation and control militancy, especially in Jammu. We wanted to hear about that. We cannot oversee law and order or secure borders. We cannot fight militancy, even though we have sacrificed a lot. We can only raise our voices. It’s the DGP’s job to fight militancy.”

As far as Mehbooba Mufti was concerned, she said: “We do not need a ‘fixer’ here, we need a DGP… No one worked on communal lines, but today it is done on communal lines. Employees are being sacked on charges of corruption. Most of them are from the majority community.”[12]

In sum, the attitude of the Kashmiri parties to the cult of terror and hostile elements within the system/ establishment could be described as both alarming and disturbing. It’s a matter of grave concern. The South and North Blocks would do well to rid the system of all such elements without any exception.

Note:
1. Text in Blue points to additional data on the topic.
2. The views expressed here are those of the author and do not necessarily represent or reflect the views of PGurus.

Reference:

[1] LG sacks 3 more Govt employees including cop for terror links – Feb 16, 2025, Daily Excelsior

[2] Law says everyone innocent until proven guilty: J-K CM after LG sacks employees over alleged terror links – Feb 15, 2025, The New Indian Express

[3] J&K LG terminates three more govt employees for alleged militant links, CM says they should get a chance to defend – Feb 15, 2025, The Economic Times

[4] Hurriyat Conference asks Omar-led govt to reinstate employees fired over ‘terror links’ – Nov 30, 2024, The Hindu

[5] Law says everyone innocent until proven guilty: J-K CM after LG sacks employees over alleged terror links – Feb 15, 2025, The New Indian Express

[6] PDP guns for NC after lieutenant governor sacks 3 J&K govt employees – Feb 15, 2025, The Hindustan Times

[7] J&K LG terminates three more govt employees for alleged militant links, CM says they should get a chance to defend – Feb 15, 2025, The Economic Times

[8] Tarigami expresses concern over ‘arbitrary dismissal’ of employees – Feb 15, 2025, Greater Kashmir

[9] Sacking staff in J&K to cause problems: Farooq Abdullah – Sep 29, 2021, The Tribune

[10] Internal subversion key support structure of terrorism in J&K: Panun Kashmir – Jul 17, 2024, Deccan Herald

[11] J&K parties cultivated terror leaders for votes’, alleges DGP – Jul 15, 2024, The Hindustan Times

[12] Brought in to dismantle terror’ — who is J&K DGP Swain, under fire for remark on regional parties – Jul 19, 2024, The Print

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