Jammu and Kashmir government to terminate more 'anti-national' employees

After terminating the services of 18 employees for their alleged involvement in anti-national and terrorist-related activities, Jammu and Kashmir government has zeroed in on nearly two dozen more such officials, who will be shown the door in the coming weeks.

Sources told DH that the records of these employees, including two to three senior officers, are being scrutinized by intelligence agencies and a final decision may be taken soon. “Most of the evidence of their anti-national activities has already been procured by the concerned agencies. Even screenshots of their anti-India campaign on their social media accounts have been enclosed with the files,” they revealed.

Sources said these employees, whose activities were being monitored by the Intelligence agencies, have suddenly started distancing themselves from the overground workers (OGWs) network of the militants. “Some of them have even deleted their social media accounts and are trying to destroy any further evidence against them,” they added.

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On July 10, J&K Lt Governor Manoj Sinha ordered the termination of 11 government employees, including the two sons of Hizbul Mujahideen chief Syed Salahuddin, for their alleged involvement in anti-national and terrorist activities.

Prior to that, on May 20. tainted deputy superintendent of J&K police, Davinder Singh, who was charge-sheeted by the NIA for providing support to the Hizbul militant outfit, was dismissed from service.

Before that, the LG administration also terminated the services of seven government employees, including a Naib tehsildar, an assistant professor and two school teachers after a panel identified them as being involved in ‘anti-national’ activities.

These employees were dismissed under Article 311 of the Constitution under which no inquiry is held and dismissed employees can only approach a high court for relief.

For future appointments, the J&K government has already made the rules stricter wherein anybody joining the service will be subjected to CID verification which will unravel whether the fresh recruits have links in anti-national and anti-social activities.

This is not the first time that the J&K government has decided to act against employees on grounds of involvement in anti-national activities. When President’s rule was imposed in 1990, among the officials dismissed on such grounds was Naeem Akthar, a senior leader of the People’s Democratic Party, who also served as a cabinet minister in the previous PDP-BJP government.

Similar action was taken in 1995 and 2016. Both times, however, the officials were reinstated later. After the split of the erstwhile state into two union territories (UTs) last August, the total number of the J&K UT employees is around 4,50,000.