5 more J-K govt employees sacked over ‘terror link’ claims: Who are they?

The five government employees terminated from service on Tuesday included Mohammad Ishfaq, who worked as a teacher under J&K’s Education Department since 2013. He is accused of being in regular contact with Lashkar-e-Toiba commander Mohammad Amin alias Abu Khubaib, a designated terrorist operating from Pakistan, sources said.

Officials claimed Ishfaq was given an “active operational role” by LeT and that he was tasked with executing the killing of a police officer in Doda in early 2022. “His activities were put under surveillance by security and intelligence agencies, and sustained monitoring revealed that he was helped in the terror activities by certain OGWs (over-ground workers) of LeT,” sources claimed. He was arrested in April 2022 by the J&K Police, before he could execute his alleged plan, and remains incarcerated.

Another employee terminated on Tuesday was Tariq Ahmad Rah. He worked as a lab technician in the Health Department since 2011, first contractually and then as a confirmed employee. He was posted at the sub-district hospital at Bijbehera.

Sources alleged that Rah had come under the influence of the terror outfit, Hizb-ul-Mujahideen, from a young age. “One of his relatives, Amin Baba alias Abid, was a divisional commander of Hizb-ul-Mujahideen from 1998-2005,” the source said. When the State Investigation Agency took over the case, the probe into Amin Baba’s escape to Pakistan in 2005 allegedly revealed that Rah facilitated the former’s stay in Anantnag and later arranged his transportation to the Attari-Wagah border. He was soon arrested under the UAPA, but was later released on bail.

An assistant lineman with the government’s Public Health Engineering Department, Bashir Ahmad Mir, was also terminated from service on Tuesday. He had been working with the department since 1988 and was regularised in 1996.

He is accused of being an active Lashkar OGW in the Gurez area of Bandipora. Officials alleged that Mir was covertly facilitating terrorist activities in the hinterlands of Gurez for a long time by guiding the movement of terrorists, providing logistical support, sharing information on the movement of security forces and providing shelter to terrorists. His alleged role came to light in September 2021, when police received inputs that two LeT terrorists were hiding in Mir’s house, the sources claimed. He was arrested and later given medical bail by the court.

Another government employee terminated on Tuesday was Farooq Ahmad Bhat, a field worker with the J&K Forest Department in Anantnag. Officials claimed that he is believed to have been “actively working with terror outfit Hizb-ul-Mujahideen”. They alleged that he was also informally working as the “personal assistant” of a former MLA with alleged ties to the terror group. Bhat, investigators alleged, helped Rah plan and execute the escape of Hizb-ul-Mujahideen commander Amin Baba to Pakistan.

Mohammad Yousf, who was posted as a driver with the Health and Medical Education Department since 2009, was also among those sacked on Tuesday. Investigators claimed Yousf was in “regular contact with terrorists”, particularly Bashir Ahmad Bhat, a Pakistan-based Hizb-ul-Mujahideen terrorist. On the directions of Bashir Ahmad Bhat, Yousf allegedly established links with Hizb-ul-Mujahideen cadres and operatives in Pakistan and was entrusted with core tasks, including procurement of arms and ammunition, and transporting funds in the areas of Ganderbal district, sources claimed, adding, “On July 20, 2024, police intercepted a vehicle in which Yousf and his associate, Eashan Hamid, was travelling and recovered one pistol, ammunition, grenade, and Rs 5 lakh in Indian currency.”