By Arun Sharma
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.”
This story was originally published in indianexpress.com. Read the full story here.
