Major crackdown: Five J&K govt employees sacked over 'terror links'; one was in 'regular contact' with top LeT commander

NEW DELHI: Jammu and Kashmir lieutenant governor Manoj Sinha on Tuesday terminated five more government employees for suspected links with terrorist organisations.Since 2020, the Union territory administration under Sinha has dismissed 85 government employees after they were found to be working for terror groups.Officials said the aim is to target the "roots of the terror ecosystem" and its "penetration" within the government institutions.The dismissals were carried out under Article 311(2)(c) of the Constitution; the provision allows for the removal of a civil servant without a formal inquiry if the president or the governor/lieutenant governor is satisfied that in the interest of the security of the state, holding such an inquiry would not be practical.Those terminated include Mohammad Ishfaq, a teacher; Tariq Ahmad Shah, a laboratory technician; Bashir Ahmad Mir, an assistant lineman; Farooq Ahmad Bhat, a field worker in the forest department; and Mohammad Yousuf, a driver in the health department.According to the dossier against them, Mohammad Ishfaq was working for the Pakistan-based terror outfit Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT). He was in regular contact with LeT commander Mohammad Amin alias Abu Khubaib, who is designated as a "terrorist" operating from the neighbouring country.Ishfaq was given an "active operational role" by the LeT and he was tasked to execute the killing of a police officer in Doda in early 2022.His activities were put under surveillance, and sustained monitoring revealed that he helped in the terror activities by certain Over Ground Workers (OGWs) of the terror group. He was arrested in April 2022 before he could execute the plan.Tariq Ahmad Rah came under the influence of the Hizb-ul-Mujahideen right from a very young age. Rah's terror link emerged during the State Investigation Agency (SIA) probe into the escape of Hizbul terrorist Amin Baba to Pakistan in 2005.Bashir Ahmad Mir was regularised in 1996 in the Public Health Engineering department. Mir became an active OGW of LeT in the Gurez area of Bandipora.Farooq Ahmad Bhat was actively working with Hizb-ul-Mujahideen.Mohammad Yousuf was in regular contact with terrorists, particularly Bashir Ahmad Bhat, a Pakistan-based Hizb terrorist.(With PTI inputs)