How Syed Ali Geelani managed grandson's govt job

Srinagar, Oct 17 (IANS) The dismissal of late Syed Ali Geelani's grandson, Anees-ul-Islam from government service Saturday has proved that the separatist leader had held an elected government to ransom in Jammu and Kashmir in the past.

Disclosure of facts that led to this highly irregular and unwarranted engagement in government service has also shown that despite being in power with the Mehbooba Mufti-led PDP-BJP coalition government, the BJP had little knowledge about how the affairs of the government were being run.

Rattled by the public unrest of 2016 that followed the killing of militancy's poster boy, Burhan Wani on July 8, 2016, Mehbooba Mufti is believed to have struck a deal with Geelani through his son-in-law, Altaf Ahmad Shah alias Altaf Fantosh.

Intelligence reports suggest that Geelani agreed to pause his influence on stone pelters and arsonists to ease pressure on the government by bringing down the level of violence provided the government offered his grandson a suitable place in the government service'.

This led to Geelani's grandson, Anees-ul-Islam getting appointed as the research officer in Sher-e-Kashmir international convention centre (SKICC) without following any procedure and without any urgency to fill that post.

The UT government headed by Lt. Governor Manoj Sinha on Saturday issued an order dismissing Anees-ul-Islam, son of Altaf Ahmad Shah, from the government service.

Anees-ul-Islam was appointed as a research officer in SKICC under J&K Tourism department in late 2016.

The intelligence dossier prepared on him said just a few months before his appointment Anees had travelled to Pakistan (July 31, 2016 to August 7, 2016 and met Colonel Yasir of ISI at the behest of his maternal grandfather, Geelani, the hardcore secessionist who had fuelled violence after terrorist Burhan Wani was killed in an encounter.

The 2016 agitation that followed Burhan Wani's killing was the brainchild of Jamaat-e-Islami and the All Party Hurriyat Conference headed by Geelani.

Not only Anees, but his entire family has been a staunch supporter of terrorism and separatism.

The intelligence dossier further said, "It is learnt that prior to his appointment in the government service Anees along with a team of his anti-India friends, used to facilitate the flying of drones in and around Srinagar city to shoot law and order incidents and other events and shared the footage with Pak ISI.

"His appointment was found to be highly irregular and under the circumstances that are incriminating for flouting established norms. It is suspected that Anees' appointment straightaway to a gazetted grade equivalent position in the government funded and controlled SKICC was a deal to bring down violence during Burhan Wani agitation between the then Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti and Geelani".