J&K Professor, Constable Among Three Govt Employees Sacked For Terror Links

The government employees were sacked on the basis of a recommendations of a designated committee constituted under Article 311 (2) (c) of the Constitution.

Representational Image. (Source: Getty Images)

New Delhi: Three government employees, including a Kashmir University professor and a policeman, were dismissed by the Jammu and Kashmir government on Friday for their alleged links with terror groups, PTI reported. The government employees were sacked based on recommendations of a designated committee constituted under Article 311 (2) (c) of the Constitution that permits dismissal from service without an inquiry for the state's security.

Those terminated are Altaf Hussain Pandit, chemistry professor at Kashmir Varsity, Mohammed Maqbool Hajam, a teacher in the school education department, and Ghulam Rasool, a constable with the Jammu and Kashmir Police, PTI reported. 

Hussain Pandit is actively working with the forbidden Jamaat-e-Islam (JeI), the report said. In the past, he had also crossed the border over to Pakistan for training and remained an active militant under the Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front for three years before he was arrested by the security forces, sometime around 1993. 

According to the officials, Panit was working as an active terror recruiter for JeI and he also played an instrumental role in organizing the stone-pelting and violent demonstrations over the killing of terrorists in 2011 and 2014. 

Hussain Pandit was elected to the executive board of the Kashmir University Teachers Association in 2015, and he utilized his position to promote secessionism among students. According to sources, he was important in encouraging three students from Kashmir University to join the terror ranks.

According to sources, Hajam, a school education department instructor, was a terror overground worker (OGW) and used to radicalize individuals.

Officials stated he was a member of a crowd that stormed a police station in Sogam as well as other government facilities, and that despite being a government teacher, he was constantly discovered to be participating in terror actions.

Rasool, a Jammu and Kashmir Police policeman, was operating as an undercover terrorist supporter.

He also served as a terrorist informer, informing terrorists and OGWs on anti-terror operations. Officials stated he used to disclose the names of police officers participating in anti-terror operations.

The officials further said Rasool was in contact with Hizbul Mujahideen terrorist Mushtaq Ahmad alias Aurangzeb, who had infiltrated into Pakistan.

"The recent crackdown is part of the government efforts to detect and mitigate terror elements within the system who somehow managed to sneak in during the previous regimes", a senior official was quoted by PTI in its report. 

(With PTI Inputs)