Bitta Karate’s wife, Hizbul chief’s son among 4 J&K govt staff sacked for terror links

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INTERNATIONAL DESK: Four government employees, including the wife of separatist leader Bitta Karate and the son of Hizbul Mujahideen chief Syed Salahuddin, were dismissed from service for their involvement in ‘anti-national activities’, Jammu and Kashmir government officials told ThePrint.

The four officials are 2011 batch Jammu and Kashmir Administrative Service officer Assabah-ul-Arjamand Khan; Dr Muheet Ahmad Bhat, Scientist-D working with Kashmir University; Majid Hussain Qadri, Senior Assistant Professor at Kashmir University and Syed Abdul Mueed, Manager IT, Jammu and Kashmir Entrepreneurship Development Institute (JKEDI).

While Assabah is the wife of Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) leader Karate, who is an accused in the 1990 killings of Kashmiri Pandits, Mueed is the son of the Hizbul chief Syed Salahuddin.

The dismissal was ordered under Article 311 of the Constitution that provides for dismissal of a person employed in civil capacities under Union or a State.

“The activities of these employees had come to the adverse notice of law enforcement and intelligence agencies, as they have been found involved in activities prejudicial to the interests of the security of the State,” the J&K government said in a statement.

The dismissals are part of a larger crackdown by the J&K administration that has been on for the past one year. Last year in July, ThePrint had reported that two sons of the Hizbul chief and 11 J&K government employees were dismissed by the Union Territory administration for their alleged involvement in “supporting militant activities”, “working as over ground workers”, “arranging weapons for terrorists” and “terror funding”.

“We have found that there are people who have been given these posts through backdoor channels and have been involved in anti-national activities, while drawing salaries from the Indian government. There are many relatives of sympathisers who are holding crucial positions in government services and are misusing the same. This crackdown is essentially to identify those people and root them out to clean the system,” a source said.

According to J&K officials, a committee was constituted in July 2020 for scrutinising the inputs, records and cognizable material against the government employees, which led to the dismissals.

Speaking to ThePrint, Muheet Bhat dismissed the allegations as “baseless” and “without any proof”.

“I was shocked when I got to know about this dismissal today. All these allegations are baseless, and I will go to the court. I have never even been a part of any protest myself. How would I organise one and encourage students to be a part of that? Moreover, I was never called by anyone for questioning. The allegation links with Lashkar-e-Taiba are laughable,” he claimed. “I don’t even know how to react and what to say. If they had any such inputs, they would have confronted me. They have taken this action without any proof, without any basis.”

ThePrint also contacted Assabah but her phone was switched off. (The Print)