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J&K govt dismisses 4 employees for narco-terror, anti-national activities
The four were identified as police constables Mushtaq Ahmad Pir and Imtiyaz Ahmad Lone, school education department junior assistant Bazil Ahmad Mir and rural development department village-level worker Mohd Zaid Shah.
The Jammu and Kashmir administration on Wednesday dismissed four government employees, including two police constables, for their alleged involvement in anti-national activities and narco-terrorism.
With this, the administration has dismissed 64 government employees on similar grounds under Article 311 of the Constitution since the abrogation of Article 370 in 2019. This provision gives the government the power to sack employees without an inquiry if the President or the governor, as the case may be, is satisfied that in the interest of the security of the state, it is not expedient to hold such inquiry. Political parties in Jammu and Kashmir have opposed such dismissals, terming them arbitrary.
This year, the services of nine employees have been terminated after they were found involved in narco-terrorism and anti-national activities.
Officials said the dismissals were part of the government’s zero-tolerance policy towards narco-terrorism.
The four were identified as police constables Mushtaq Ahmad Pir and Imtiyaz Ahmad Lone, school education department junior assistant Bazil Ahmad Mir and rural development department village-level worker Mohd Zaid Shah.
The officials, privy to the investigations, said that the four were “acting on behalf of terror outfits” as the law enforcement and intelligence agencies collected “incriminating material evidence” against them.
Kupwara cop who turned drug peddling kingpin
They said that dismissed constable Pir was recruited in 1995 as a constable in the armed police wing and spent a large part of his service in the frontier district of Kupwara, where he allegedly took undue advantage of his police position and leveraged it for hassle-free transportation and sale of drugs.
“Instead of helping the department fight the drug menace, he chose to be a kingpin of peddling drugs and thus betrayed his oath and uniform. He was able to establish contacts with narcotic smugglers across the border in Pakistan and was able to run a drug cartel in north Kashmir,” they said.
They said that police had been monitoring his activities and due to continuous surveillance on his activities, he was eventually caught by an alert team of Handwara police. “During interrogation, he revealed that he has been a close associate of Iftikhar Andrabi who was the kingpin of a narco-terror syndicate operating across the border. He used to exploit gullible youngsters by getting them addicted to drugs and thus making them habitual addicts and peddlers. He targeted young school and college students,” they said.
“Heroin and brown sugar are inextricably linked with terrorism in Jammu and Kashmir and it comes from Pakistan through several networks with the sole aim of destabilising the security situation,” they said.
Constable abetted terror in south Kashmir
The officials said that Imtiyaz Ahmad Lone, who was appointed as constable in 2002, strayed and slipped into illicit activities aimed at aiding and abetting terrorism in south Kashmir.
“He chose the path of secessionism and became an important and trusted terror OGW (over ground worker) of banned terror outfit Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM),” they said.
In December 2023, police in Awantipora received information about terrorist associates in touch with handlers of proscribed terrorist organisations based in Pakistan. “During the course of investigation, a woman of Tral was arrested who disclosed that three Pakistan-based terrorists of the JeM contacted her to bring some arms and ammunition into Kashmir. The woman conveyed the message to Lone, who consented to bring the consignment from Jammu. He was arrested in a well-planned operation and arms and ammunition were recovered,” the officials said.
“Lone was in constant touch with the woman since long and both of them were discussing radicalism and were influencing each other,” they said.
Education dept official drug supply conduit
Another dismissed employee Baazil Ahmad Mir, who was appointed as a junior assistant in 2018 and posted in Machil, Kupwara, allegedly became a notorious drug peddler.
“Mir has been in touch with Pakistani terrorist handlers, and strengthened their foothold by playing a conduit in delivery, supply and sale of drugs, weapons and explosives,” the investigators said.
Mir was finally caught last year when he was travelling along with his associate.
Village-level worker was caught with 10kg heroin
Mohd Zaid Shah, who was appointed village-level worker in 1998, had allegedly become a hardcore drug peddler in north Kashmir’s Uri. “Shah, under the guise of being a government employee, the president of the Village-Level Workers’ Association, and his political affiliation with a national political party, had carved out an image in the public, whereby he could be least suspected by the police or security forces of being an arch element of the narco-terror syndicate operating in Jammu and Kashmir,” the officials said.
“He was put under surveillance, which led to his arrest in 2022 along with narcotics worth ₹30 crore. Investigation showed Shah had received 10kg of heroin from smugglers across the Line of Control in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir and was aiming to sell the contraband among peddlers in the UT and other parts of India,” they said.
“He was in touch with two individuals, who in 1990 had crossed over to Pakistan for terrorist training and are settled in PoJK. Both these individuals have acted as the main supply source of drugs to Shah for fuelling and funding the terrorist ecosystem,” they said.
In June, the services of two police constables, a teacher and an employee of the Jal Shakti department were also terminated.
In March, the Jammu and Kashmir administration dismissed another government employee in south Kashmir’s Kulgam district.
