Professor with terror ties was 'Geelani of Kashmir University'

NEW DELHI: Altaf Hussain Pandit, the chemistry professor at Kashmiri University sacked on Friday over terror links, was not only an active terrorist associated with JKLF from 1990 to 1993 but as executive member of the Kashmir University Teachers Association (KUTA) from 2015 to 2017 and its vice-president from 2017 to 2018, he is also alleged to have orchestrated several student protests against the State, including in the aftermath of killing of Hizbul Mujahideen terrorist Burhan Wani in 2016.
According to the dossier on Altaf, based on which the designated committee in J&K for scrutinizing cases under Article 311 (2) (c) recommended his termination, he did not undergo a formal character and antecedent verification, a mandatory requirement for all government employees, either upon joining government service or even subsequently. A discreet enquiry revealed that he was one among the tens of hundreds of persons who, despite acting prejudicially to the security of State, managed to enter the public employment system “as the system itself had come to be heavily contaminated,” said a senior J&K government officer.
Altaf had, in fact, earned the monicker ‘Geelani of Kashmir University’ due to his secessionist agenda that included open demands for compliance of Hurriyat protest calendars by the University administration and students and even synchronisation of the academic calendar of Kashmir University with the Hurriyat calendar, as per the dossier.
As office-bearer of KUTA from 2015 to 2018, Altaf, through a combination of fear, favour and propaganda, ensured that Kashmir University students participated in violent protests driven by the separatists and Pakistan. Agencies claimed he was anguished by the fact that no University student was killed during the 2016 protests that claimed over 120 lives and damaged public property worth crores.
The dossier counts Altaf among the 20-odd key elements “who nourished the anti-India cartel in Kashmir University”.
Altaf, an MSc in chemistry and also a PhD in applied chemistry from Aligarh Muslim University, was appointed as an assistant professor in KU in 2004. He hails from village Wadoora of Sopore, which has a strong influence of Jamaat-e-Islami (Jel). From early childhood, Altaf was supposedly under the influence of local Jel leaders Syed Ali Shah Geelani and Ghulam Mohammad Bhat, both of whom hail from Sopore. His association with the secessionists led him to join terrorist ranks in 1990. He crossed LoC for arms training in Pakistan and returned to Kashmir in 1990, and remained an active terrorist of JKLF till 1993, when he was arrested. After his release, he went to Aligarh Muslim University to pursue higher studies, but continued his deep association with Jamaat e Islami cadre and secessionists.
Altaf and his likeminded colleagues allegedly played a key role in radicalizing students and hijacking Kashmir University platform for advancing the subversive agenda of Pakistan and its proxies. Since 2016, three Kashmir University students -- Imran Nabi Dar of Kulgam pursuing MSc; Showkat Ahmad Bhat of Pulwama, a PG student of pharmacy; and Mohd Amir Malik of Shopian -- and one contractual Assistant Professor Mohammad Rafiq Bhat of Ganderbal have joined terrorist outfits.
An officer said agencies had warned that Altaf, carrying on separatist agenda for Pakistan and its proxies, was not a potential but a real danger, as there are thousands of impressionable minds entering the university every year.