IAS Officer Shah Faesal Appointed Dy Secy In Union Tourism Ministry. Omar Abdullah Congratulates JKPM Founder

Shah Faesal who had submitted his resignation in January 2019 and floated the JKPM party, was detained under Public Safety Act immediately after the abrogation of Article 370.

New Delhi: Indian Administrative Service officer Shah Faesal who had a brief stint in politics has been posted as a deputy secretary in the Union Tourism Ministry, three months after being reinstated into the administrative service, officials said on Saturday, reported news agency PTI. 

The order on the posting of 2010-batch IAS officer from erstwhile Jammu and Kashmir cadre was cleared earlier this week.

Faesal returned in the last week of April after the government accepted his application for withdrawing his resignation.

Former Jammu Kashmir Chief Minister and National Conference chief Omar Abdullah congratulated Faesal on his appointment. “Best wishes to Shah Faesal as he resumes his career as a bureaucrat after a brief but eventful break. I hope J&K will benefit from his posting to the Tourism ministry in the centre,” he tweeted. 

The doctor-turned-bureaucrat, who had submitted his resignation in January 2019 and floated the Jammu and Kashmir People's Movement (JKPM) party, was detained under the stringent Public Safety Act immediately after the abrogation of the special status of the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir.

However, earlier this year, he had dropped hints about his returning to the government service when he sent out a series of tweets speaking about his idealism letting him down in 2019 when he had resigned.

The bureaucrat was vocal about the "unprecedented curbs" on the people of Jammu and Kashmir after the abrogation of the operative provisions of Article 370.

He was detained at Delhi airport on the intervening night of August 14-15, 2019, and sent back to Srinagar and placed under detention after which he spent six months in preventive detention before being booked under the draconian Public Safety Act in February 2020 which was later revoked after four months.

However, after his release, Faesal gave up on politics and gave indications he was willing to rejoin government service. His resignation had not been accepted.

Hailing from the remote village of Lolab in north Kashmir, Faesal, whose father was killed by terrorists in 2002, had topped the UPSC examination in 2009 and was the first Indian Administrative Service exam topper from Jammu and Kashmir.