J&K admin orders reshuffle ahead of poll announcement; L-G trying to benefit BJP and allies, alleges NC

In a separate order, the J-K administration announced Nitish Kumar as “head of CID” relieving Swain of the additional charge of the post. Swain was the CID chief with an additional charge of Director General of Police. However, earlier this month the Home Ministry confirmed him as the DGP till his retirement on September 30.

Kumar, a 1999-batch IPS officer was Swain’s deputy in the J&K Police’s intelligence wing. He is currently posted as the Additional Director General of Police (ADG). Originally from the J&K cadre — which is now part of the AGMUT cadre — Kumar has served in the Valley for several years as SP and SSP Handwara, and DIG south and north Kashmir.

During a deputation with the National Investigation Agency, Kumar worked as IG (Investigations) in the central agency. On his return, he was posted as IG CID and later as ADG CID. Kumar is also holding the charge of Director State Investigation Agency (SIA), an investigation wing set up on the lines of NIA.

The government has also posted eight new SP Operations in Jammu region in view of the rising militant violence there. While two SP Operations have been posted in Kathua (Upper Kathua and Border and Kandi Kathua), two have been posted at Rajouri (Budhal and Thanamandi).

One SP Operations each has been posted in Poonch (Surankoe), Reasi (Arnas), Kishtwar and Udhampur (Dudu). These regions have seen a spike of militancy in recent months.

The administration also ordered the transfer of several top police officers, bringing back some old anti-militancy hands at sensitive positions, especially in Jammu. Shiv Kumar Sharma has been posted as DIG Jammu-Samba-Kathua range replacing Sunil Kumar. Maqsood-ul-Zaman has been posted as DIG North Kashmir, replacing Vivek Gupta, who has been posted as IGP Railways.

SSP Baramulla Amod Ashok has been posted as SSP Udhampur while Mumtaz Ahmad has been posted as SSP Poonch replacing Yougal Manhas, who has been sent to SIA Jammu. Mohammad Aslam has been posted as SSP Doda, while SSP Kathua, SSP Udhampur, SSP Reasi and SSP Ramban have also been replaced.

In the civil administration, Deputy Commissioner Poonch Yasin Chowdhary has been replaced by Vikas Kundal while Abishek Sharma has been posted as DC Rajouri.

The National Conference has questioned the transfers, with party vice-president Omar Abdullah calling on the Election Commission of India to look at these transfers from a prism of “free and fair” elections.

“That the J&K administration had to call officers in the secretariat and police HQ to work on Independence Day to order this massive reshuffle tells me they had absolutely no clue that the ECI would be announcing poll dates today. All the more reason that the ECI should look at this transfer order from the prism of a free & fair poll. NC suspects a biased intent on the part of the L-G,” he wrote on X.

The party also accused the administration of trying to “undermine” the legitimacy of the electoral process. “Why has a massive reshuffle been ordered in the police and administration since last evening, and today morning, seemingly to pre-empt the Election Commission’s announcement? It appears to have been orchestrated by a BJP-appointed LG to benefit his party and its allies,” the party alleged.

Party general secretary Ali Mohammad Sagar said the move seems “clearly intended to undermine the integrity of the electoral process, which restricts such transfers to prevent the ruling party from gaining an undue administrative advantage over the opposition”. He accused L-G Manoj Sinha of having “strategically shaken up the entire administrative setup compromising the principles of free and fair elections”.

The Election Commission announced on Friday morning that it will hold a press conference at 3 pm today to announce the schedule for “General Election to Legislative Assemblies”. Although the poll body has not specified the states, it is expected that the dates will be for Haryana and Jammu and Kashmir.