Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha’s administration has terminated the services of 11 government employees including the Hizbul Mujahideen chief Syed Salahuddin’s two sons on the charges of their involvement in terror funding and anti-national activities in Jammu and Kashmir.

Commissioner-Secretary General Administration Department (GAD) Manoj Kumar Dwivedi confirmed the dismissal of 11 government employees who, according to the government dossiers, had indulged in anti-national and subversive activities.

Senior Jamaat-e-Islami (JeI) leader Syed Mohammad Yousuf Shah alias Syed Salahuddin was inducted as the ‘chief commander’ of Hizbul Mujahideen in 1991. He has been operating from Pakistan as the Hizbul Mujahideen supremo and chairman of the guerrilla alliance United Jihad Council since 1993. He figures among the global terrorists as his organisation has been declared outlawed internationally.

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While one of Salahuddin’s five sons, Shahid Yousuf, was appointed as an Agriculture Extension Officer after 2010, another son Syed Shakil had been appointed as a junior official in SKIMS in 1990.

Both, Shahid and Shakil, have been arrested and detained by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) for their alleged involvement in receiving funds through a terror Hawala channel. They have been booked under different provisions of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act and the Indian Penal Code. Now, both have been dismissed from service.

A designated committee for scrutinising and recommending cases under Article 311(2)(c) of the Constitution of India, has recommended a total of 11 cases for their dismissal from the government service. Sources said that over a hundred such cases were still under scrutiny. With four previous terminations, the total number of the J&K Government employees dismissed from service without a departmental enquiry has reached 15 in the last over two months.  Four officials, including an assistant professor, had been dismissed early this year.

According to the sources, an Orderly of the Industrial Training Institute Kupwara, allegedly operating as an ‘over-ground worker’ of the terror outfit Lashkar-e-Tayyiba, is also among the 11 employees dismissed by the government on Saturday. He had been allegedly providing information to the terrorists about the movement of security forces as also abetting and harbouring terrorists to carry out his subversive activities in a clandestine manner.

Two others two are reportedly teachers from Anantnag. They, according to the sources, were found to be involved in "anti-national activities including participating, supporting and propagating the secessionist JeI and Dukhtaraan-e-Millat ideology.

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Eight others, recommended for dismissal in the second meeting of the Committee, include two constables of the Jammu Kashmir Police who have allegedly “supported terrorism from within the police department and provided inside information to the terrorists as also logistic support”.

Naaz Mohammad Ali, Orderly in the Health Department, has also been terminated on Saturday. He is allegedly an Over Ground Worker (OGW) of the Hizbul Mujahideen with a history of ‘direct involvement in terrorist activities’. Police insist that two dreaded terrorists were harboured by him at his residence. The others dismissed on Saturday include two employees of the Department of Education, namely Jabbar Ahmad Paray and Nisar Ahmad Tantray, allegedly involved in furthering the secessionist agenda.

Shaheen Ahmad Lone, an Inspector of the Power Department has been found involved in smuggling and transportation of arms for the Hizbul Mujahideen. “He was found traveling with two terrorists on the Srinagar-Jammu National Highway, carrying arms, ammunition and explosives, in January 2020”, said an official.

According to the officials, four of the dismissed government employees were from Anantnag, three from Budgam and one each from Baramulla, Srinagar, Pulwama and Kupwara. “Four are from the Education Department, two from the J&K Police and one each from Agriculture, Skill Development, Power, Sher-e-Kashmir Institute of Medical Sciences Soura and Health Department”.

On 30 July 2020, the Government of Jammu and Kashmir had amended the service rules and dispensed with the requirement of an enquiry for dismissal of the employees emerging as a threat to the security of the State. For the first time, the government had devised a mechanism to terminate the ‘anti-national employees' without facing judicial scrutiny.

Principal Secretary Home and Director General of Police Criminal Investigation Department (CID) were given sweeping powers to decide the fate of the employees reported to the government as a threat to the security of the State.

Months later, on 21 April 2021, the Government constituted a high-level committee vide Order No: 355-JK (GAD) of 2021 for the purpose of scrutinising and processing the cases of the employees reported by the intelligence agency. DG CID was appointed as its Chairman and Inspector General of Police Kashmir/Jammu and Additional Secretaries of the Law Department and the concerned department of the employee as members.

The Committee was given the responsibility to scrutinise cases of employees suspected of activities requiring action under Article 311(2)© of the Constitution of India, to compile a record of such employees, wherever necessary and to refer it to the Committee constituted vide Government Order No: 738-JK(GAD) of 2020 Dated 30-07-2020 and to engage with other members of the Terror Monitoring Group (TMG) for identifying such other employees, as necessary.

On 30 April 2021, Idrees Jan, a teacher at Government Middle School Kralpora Kupwara was the first official dismissed from service. The order said that the LG was “satisfied under sub-clause (c) of the proviso to clause (2) of Article 311 of the Constitution of India that in the interest of the security of the State, it is not expedient to hold an enquiry”.