Jammu and Kashmir Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha has terminated two govt employees from the service for their alleged links with the Pakistan based Lashkar-e-Taiba and Hizb-Ul-Mujahideen terrorist outfits.
Sources privy to the development here today said that the Lieutenant Governor, Manoj Sinha has terminated the services of two government employees as part of his “zero-tolerance to terror” policy.
“The dismissals were executed under Article 311(2) (c) of the Constitution of India and this is part of the ongoing drive to root out terrorists embedded in the government machinery,” they said.
Sources noted that the move underscores Sinha’s firm resolve to purge the state apparatus of covertly infiltrated terrorist elements.
Lieutenant Governor Sinha has stressed that he will not rest until every trace of terrorism is eradicated from the government machinery. He has also vowed that security agencies will decisively and permanently end the scourge of terrorism, sources added.
According to the sources, one of the dismissed employees, Farhat Ali Khanday, was a Class-IV employee in the Education Department in Ramban. Investigations revealed that he had been operating for the terror outfit Hizb-Ul-Mujahideen and used his government position as a cover to revive terrorism and build a larger terrorist network in Ramban and surrounding areas, they said.
Sources also said that Farhat first came under the watch of security and intelligence agencies in 2011, when a ‘hawala’ network tasked with distributing money to families of killed terrorists was exposed.
Later, fresh inputs revealed that terror funds were being channelled to revive and sustain the Hizb-Ul-Mujahideen terrorist network in Jammu Division, they said.
“We didn’t know that Farhat was working for Hizb-Ul-Mujahideen until April 2011. His name came out in April 2011, during interrogation of a Hizb-Ul-Mujahideen terrorist, who was nabbed by J&K Police for distributing terror money to seven terrorist families,” they said.
Sources added that the Jammu and Kashmir Police picked up Farhat and he was put behind the bars but later in October 2011 he was released on bail and continued his terror activities.
It is learnt from the investigators that Farhat had shown no remorse or change of mind and his activities were monitored and a charge-sheet which was filed against him in a special court in 2022.
It was further learnt that Farhat was making contacts with local terrorist networks for furthering terrorist activities and strengthening the cadres of Hizb-Ul-Mujahideen while detailed investigation in his case and huge inputs gathered by the agencies revealed that Farhat continued to act as a facilitator and conduit of terrorists.
“The presence of a terrorist within an educational environment is a matter of grave concern. Moreover, he was part of the government machinery, an institution tasked with serving the public and responsibly using taxpayers’ money. While drawing a salary from the government exchequer, he was in fact working for terrorists- an inconceivable betrayal in any civilised society,” sources added.
Sources also disclosed that another government employee sacked by the Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha is Mohammad Shafi Dar from Bandipora, who was working as a Class-IV employee in the Rural Development Department.
“His appointment was made on compassionate grounds following the death of his father, who was working as a plantation watcher in the Rural Development Department,” they said.
Sources added that investigation revealed that Mohammad Shafi Dar was working as a terror associate of LeT and he was providing logistical and operational support to LeT terrorists operating in Bandipora.
Sources said, “Shafi was tasked by Pakistan-based terror outfit to provide safe houses to terrorists, facilitate their movement and transportation, sharing sensitive information related to movement and deployment of police and security forces and raising the OGW network of LeT in the area.”
“In April 2025, Shafi and one of his terror associates, Rayees Ahmad Dar were apprehended during a routine check at a joint Naka with one AK-56 rifle, a grenade and other ammunition,” they said.
The investigation further revealed that Shafi had evolved from a mere facilitator into an active operational terror associate, and that his network was plotting an attack on security forces.
“Appointed on compassionate grounds after his father fell in government service, Shafi repaid that mercy with treachery. His descent into terrorism is not merely a crime- it is a cold-blooded betrayal of the very state that sheltered him and sustained his family,” sources further said.
Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha has sacked more than 90 government employees with terror links
“Lieutenant Governor Sinha has made an iron-clad promise to the people of J&K UT: every terrorist will be hunted down and eliminated, without exception and without mercy,” they said.
