A police constable, a school teacher and a forest department employee are three government employees whose services Jammu and Kashmir Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha terminated Saturday citing alleged terror links. Apart from police constable Firdous Ahmad Bhat, the others whose services were terminated are Mohammad Ashraf Bhat, the teacher, and Nissar Ahmad Khan, an orderly with the state forest department. Bhat was arrested on terror charges last May and is currently lodged in Kot Bhalwal jail. Nissar Ahmad Khan, who was previously arrested and acquitted for the 2000 killing of a then National Conference minister, has been in jail since 2022 on terror funding charges. According to officials, the services of all three government employees were terminated after law enforcement and intelligence agencies “clearly established their terror links.” They were dismissed under Article 311(2)(c) of the Constitution, which empowers the President or Governor to dismiss a government employee without an inquiry if they are satisfied that it is in the interest of state security. This brings the total number of such terminations to 79 since 2021, including five since the new Omar Abdullah government was voted to power last October. Abdullah said a chance should be given to the sacked government employees “to prove their innocence.” He said that appropriate action be taken “if there is proof against them and they have been given an opportunity to clear the allegations but failed.” According to officials, Bhat was engaged as a Special Police Officer in 2005 and became a police constable in 2011. He was eventually posted in a sensitive position in the Electronic Surveillance Unit in the Jammu and Kashmir Police. Security sources claim he allegedly worked for the LeT and shared “classified information”. Nissar Ahmad Khan joined the forest department in 1996 as a helper and was last posted as an orderly at the forest range office, Verinag, Anantnag. He was accused of having links with the Hizbul Mujahideen in 2000, when Ghulam Hasan Bhat, power minister of the then state of J&K, as well as two policemen, were killed in a landmine blast. Khan was arrested and chargesheeted for allegedly providing logistical support to the militants but was acquitted in 2006. Mohammad Ashraf Bhat, a resident of Reasi, was appointed as Rehbar-e-Taleem teacher — a name given to teachers appointed on a temporary basis for five years — in 2000 but was regularised in June 2013. Security sources claim he was an overground worker for the LeT.
