2 govt employees sacked in J&K, takes number of terminations without hearing to 76; PDP says ‘brazen overreach’

On Friday, Abdul Rahim Naika and Zahir Abbas were terminated from their services “in the interest of the security of the state”.

Citing information from top law enforcement agencies of Jammu and Kashmir regarding their alleged connections to the militant outfit Hizbul Mujahideen, Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha terminated the two from their services in the J&K government.

While Naika is a pharmacist in the Health and Medical Education Department, posted in Kulgam, Abbas is a government school teacher at the Kishtwar district of the Jammu region.

Government sources claim Naika’s links with Hizbul Mujahideen were “unearthed” when police officials started investigating the killing of a politically affiliated individual, Ghulam Hassan Lone from Devsar, in Kulgam in August 2021.

According to sources, Naika allegedly “strengthened and proliferated the conducive ecosystem for secessionism and terrorism, not only in his local area of Kulgam but also in the neighbouring district of Shopian and Anantnag”.

After Ghulam Hassan Lone’s killing, the police investigation tracked the footprints of OGWs or overground workers who were allegedly providing logistical support to terrorists.

Zahir Abbas, a resident of Badhat Sargot in Kishtwar who was appointed as a teacher in 2012 and posted at Government High School, Bugrana, was arrested in September 2020 for allegedly harbouring three active terrorists of Hizbul Mujahideen. He is currently lodged in Central Jail, Kot Balwal.

Earlier this month, former chief minister and Peoples Democratic Party president Mehbooba Mufti wrote to Chief Minister Omar Abdullah, seeking an immediate review of the termination of government employees dismissed under Article 311(2)(C) by the J&K administration.

“The abrupt dismissal of government employees without due process, a pattern that started since 2019, has left many families devastated and, in some cases, destitute,” Mufti wrote, demanding that the government set up a committee to review the termination cases.

Leader of the PDP Legislative Party Waheed ur Rehman Para wrote on X, “It’s shocking how the government acts as judge, jury, and executioner, denying the aggrieved even a proper hearing. Such brazen overreach is unacceptable and must stop.”

He also attacked Chief Minister Omar Abdullah stating that since the CM heads the General Administration Department, his “silence on these terminations cannot be justified”.