3 J&K Government Employees Sacked, Jailed For Alleged Terror Links

Jammu and Kashmir Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha has sacked three government employees over terror links in a massive crackdown on terror support structures active in the Union territory where an April attack had left 26 civilians dead, sources said. The sacked employees were allegedly working for Pakistan-based terror groups, Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) and Hizb-ul-Mujahideen (HM), they added.

The accused have been identified as Malik Ishfaq Naseer, a police constable, Ajaz Ahmed, a teacher, and Waseem Ahmad Khan, a junior assistant at the Government Medical College, Srinagar.

All three have been sent to jail.

A senior security official said that the sacked employees were found to be actively working for the banned groups that carried out terror attacks on civilians and forces.

"Having a mole and a dangerous terrorist associate in the ranks of police and other government departments is a huge threat, a continuation of which can be extremely expensive for the sovereignty and integrity of the nation," said the official.

Among those in custody is Ishfaq Naseer, who had joined the state police in 2007. His brother, Asif Naseer, was killed in an encounter with security forces in 2019. His terror links were exposed during a probe into an arms smuggling case.

Naseer helped coordinate the LeT's consignments of arms, explosives, and narcotics, and ensure they would reach the Pakistani terrorists and their handlers, said the official. Apart from scouting for safe locations for LeT handlers, he also collected and provided arms and ammunition to terrorists, he said.

The official said Ajaz Ahmed, a teacher who worked for the Hizbul, had joined the School Education Department in 2011 and was active in the Poonch region, helping terrorists to smuggle arms and drugs.

In 2023, he was arrested during a routine check on his way to deliver a consignment of arms and ammunition at the direction of his Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir (POK)-based handler, said the official. Hizbul posters were also recovered from him.

Waseem Khan was appointed by the health and medical education department in 2007 and worked as a junior assistant at the Government Medical College, Srinagar. His terror links were exposed in 2018, and he was found involved in the terror plot that led to the killing of journalist Shujaat Bukhari and his two guards, said an official.