Jammu: The Jammu and Kashmir administration on Wednesday sacked four more government employees, including a doctor and a policeman, for their alleged terror links in the Union Territory, officials said.
Assistant professor (medicine) at SMHS Hospital, Srinagar, Nisar-ul-Hassan, constable Abdul Majeed Bhat, laboratory bearer in the Higher Education Department Abdul Salam Rather, and teacher in Education Department Farooq Ahmad Mir were dismissed in terms of Article 311 of the Constitution of India, they said.
In the last three years, the Union Territory administration has invoked Article 311 (2)(c) of the Constitution to sack more than 50 employees, who were allegedly operating in shadows within the government and drawing a salary from the public exchequer, officials said.
“They were helping Pakistani terror outfits, providing logistics to terrorists, propagating terrorists’ ideology, raising terror finances and furthering a secessionist agenda,” they said.
The General Administration Department, in separate but almost identical dismissal orders, said the Lt Governor was satisfied with the action taken after considering the facts.
On the basis of the information available, the activities of the four employees are such as to warrant their dismissal from service. The Lt Governor is satisfied under sub-clause (c) of the proviso to clause (2) of Article 311 of the Constitution that in the interest of the security of the State, it is not expedient to hold an enquiry in the case of the employees, it said.
The officials said the dismissals were a part of the ongoing crackdown against the “terrorist ecosystem and its key stakeholders who were surreptitiously inducted into the government machinery by previous regimes” of different shades in the past.
The officials said Hassan, a self-styled president of Doctors’ Association Kashmir (DAK) from Sopore in north Kashmir’s Baramulla district, has been spearheading “secessionism brazenly and unabatedly” and had a “clear mission mandated from across and was instructed to orient the medical professionals in J&K, towards secession against India.”
They said Hassan, “who has established himself as a staunch separatist and would consistently provide moral and background support to secessionists and terrorists, is a potential time-bomb who can be re-installed by Pakistan and its terrorist-secessionist network at any given point in time to cause wide-spread violence and disturbance against the sovereignty and territorial integrity of India.”
Rather, a resident of south Kashmir’s Kulgam “has a long history of terror links who got his adopted daughter married to Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) commander Habibullah Malik alias Sajad Jutt of Kasoor area of Pakistan’s Punjab.”
Malik remained active in the valley for several years before fleeing to Pakistan in 2005, officials said.
“Rather’s real job was to recruit gullible youth for terrorist outfits Hizbul Mujahideen and LeT, and build a network of overground workers and logistic supporters,” they said.
He was first inducted into the government system in 1990 as a daily-wager and was subsequently regularised in 1998, they added.
“Besides several attacks on police and security forces, dozens of workers of mainstream political parties were killed by LeT terrorists under Malik’s command, duly supported by Rather between 1998 and 2005,” the officials said.
They said the investigation has also revealed that Rather gave shelter to Malik in his house. “But when the noose tightened, Rather facilitated Malik’s escape to Pakistan.”
Malik not only “spearheaded a wide terrorist network while being active in Kashmir but also continued to mastermind several attacks from across the border like the suicide attack on the Army in Hyderpora, Srinagar resulting in the deaths of eight personnel and Station House Officer of Chadoora Police Staton Shabir Ahmad in 2013.”
In cohorts with killed terrorist commander Abbas Sheikh of Kulgam, “Malik established a terror outfit ‘The Resistance Front’ (TRF), as an offshoot of the LeT, which continues to pose a serious security challenge and is linked to dozens of innocent killings of Kashmir Pandits, non-local labourers and off-duty policemen,” the officials said.
They said Malik has been “sending money, weapons and contraband through drones and other means from Pakistan besides grooming and luring gullible youth to recruit them in terror ranks.”
Being his close relative, Rather is the “most important entity and confidante for Malik in Kashmir who continues to be in contact with him directly or indirectly through his daughter,” the officials said.
Rather visited Pakistan on two occasions to meet Malik on February 05, 2016, and July 11, 2017, staying there for 18 days on the first visit and for 10 days during his second visit, they said.
The officials said Constable Bhat was arrested last year following recovery of 1.8 kg of heroin and is presently under judicial custody for his involvement in narco-terror activities.
Bhat, a resident of the Kunan area of Kupwara district, was appointed as a special police officer (SPO) in 2011 and was confirmed as a constable five years later even though he had studied only up to ninth standard, the officials said.
They said Bhat got involved in narcotic trafficking of an organised syndicate operating in Kupwara and successfully survived in the trade for more than a decade, using his official position and connections.
“Bhat was part of the syndicate which was receiving heroin consignments sent from Pakistan through Hizbul Mujahideen terrorist handler Shakir Khan to fund terror activities in the valley,” the officials said.
Mir, also a resident of Kupwara, was a “Pakistan-trained terrorist” who was initially appointed to the Education department in 1994 and was later promoted to a teacher in 2007, the officials said.
They said investigations revealed that Mir was a senior functionary of the secessionist organisation Tehreek-e-Hurriyat (TeH) founded by hardline Hurriyat conference leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani.
Mir played a major role in the 2008 Amarnath land row agitation and also led a violent mob that set ablaze a police guard room at the district hospital Kupwara on July 23, 2010, before he was finally detained and lodged in Central Jail Kot Bhalwal Jammu for six months under Public Safety Act, they said.
Despite being detained under the PSA and arrested several times, no disciplinary action was taken against him by the department and he paradoxically was never marked absent despite being in jail for six months, officials said.
