KU Professor Among 3 Employees Dismissed By J&K Administration.

Jammu and Kashmir administration on Friday sacked three government employees, including a Kashmir University professor and a policeman, for their alleged links with militant groups, officials said.

The trio was terminated from services based on the recommendation of a designated committee constituted under Article 311 (2) (c) of the Constitution that allows dismissal from service without an inquiry in the interest of the State’s security.

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

“Altaf Hussain Pandit is actively associated with the proscribed Jamaat-e-Islam (JeI). He had crossed over to Pakistan for terror training and remained an active militant of the Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front for three years before his arrest by the security forces, sometime in 1993.”

He continued to be an active cadre of JeI and worked as a militant recruiter. Pandit was instrumental in organising stone pelting and violent protests over the killing of militants in 2011 and 2014, the officials said.

In 2015, Hussain Pandit became an executive member of the Kashmir University Teachers Association and used his position to propagate secessionism among students. He was instrumental in motivating three students of the Kashmir University to join militant ranks, they added.

Hajam, a teacher of the school education department, was also a militant over ground worker (OGW) and he used to radicalise people, they said.

He was part of a mob which attacked a police station in Sogam and other government buildings, officials said, adding that despite being a government teacher, he was always found to be involved in militant activities.

Rasool, a constable with the Jammu and Kashmir Police, was working as an underground supporter of militants.

He also acted as an informer to militants and used to tip-off militants and OGWs about anti-militancy operations. He used to leak the names of police personnel involved in anti-militancy operations, the officials said.

Rasool was also in touch with Hizbul Mujahideen militant Mushtaq Ahmad alias Aurangzeb, who has crossed over to Pakistan, they added.

“The recent crackdown is part of the government efforts to detect and mitigate militant elements  within the system who somehow managed to sneak in during the previous regimes”, a senior official said.