More employees of J&K govt are on radar of security forces

New Delhi, May 23 (IANS) More government employees are on the radar of the security agencies for terror links in Jammu and Kashmir and it is expected that the government will sack them soon, the sources in the security network on Monday said.

The sources further said that the people who are on the radar of the agencies are teaching and non-teaching staff of the Kashmir University, while some of them are working in the J&K government.

The government has asked the intelligence agencies to prepare a list of those employees of university, school and government offices who are sympathizers of terror outfits or spreading the separatism among the students and the local people.

The intelligence agencies in J&K have prepared three categories of such government employees and teachers who are involved in spreading the ideology of the terror organisations.

Among the University teachers, it was learnt that 15 professors or lecturers are on the radar of the security forces and three of them need immediate action while 15 are on the watch list, the sources said.

Those who are under the first category will be sacked immediately after a Committee's recommendation which has been constituted under Article 311(2)(C) of the Constitution while those kept under second category are on the watch of the security agencies and the third category, the misguided government employees will be taken for counselling to get them back in the mainstream, they added.

The officials in the security grid in J&K said that the majority of university teachers are against terrorism and have no anti-India sentiments.

Recently, the J&K government had dismissed one professor Altaf Hussain Pandit of the Kashmir University and a school teacher Mohammad Maqbul Hajam for encouraging and involvement in anti- India activities.

It was learnt that Chemistry professor Pandit had a terror link with the proscribed terror outfit Jamaat-e-Islami and he had visited the Pakistan Occupied Kashmir (PoK) in 1993 for terror training. Despite this, he managed to get a government job in the Kashmir University.

Taking a strict stand on the involvement of the government employees for keeping links with terror outfits, the J&K government has so far sacked 38 officials for keeping in touch with terror outfits in the Union Territory in the last two years.

They were accused of playing an active role in creating and sustaining the ideological narratives for the terror networks in J&K.