Professor, cop among govt employees sacked for links with terrorists

The Jammu and Kashmir administration on 13 May terminated the jobs of three government employees, including a professor and a policeman, for their alleged links with terror groups, officials said.

The trio was terminated from services on the basis of a designated committee’s recommendation. The committee was constituted under Article 311 (2)(C) of the Constitution of India that asks for the dismissal of a person from government service without an inquiry in the interest of the state’s security.

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

Hussain Pandit is still associated with the banned Jamaat-e-Islam. He had crossed over to Pakistan for terror training and remained an active terrorist of the Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front for three years before his arrest by the security forces, sometime in 1993.

Altaf Hussain Pandit is an active cadre of the banned jamaat and worked as a terror recruiter. The professor was instrumental in organising stone pelting and violent protests over the killing of terrorists 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. Sources said the professor was instrumental in motivating three students of the Kashmir University to join terror ranks.

A teacher of the school education department, Hajam was also a terror overground worker and he used to radicalise people, they said. He participated in a mob that 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 terror activities.

A constable with the Jammu and Kashmir Police, Rasool was working as an underground supporter of terrorists. He also acted as an informer to terrorists and used to tip-off terrorists and overground workers about anti-terror operations. He used to leak the names of police personnel involved in anti-terror operations, the officials said.

Rasool was in touch with Hizb ul Mujahideen terrorist 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 terror elements within the system who somehow managed to sneak in during the previous regimes”, a senior official said.