Jammu and Kashmir administration sacks kin of Hizbul Mujahideen chief, JKLF leader | India News

NEW DELHI/SRINAGAR: The Jammu & Kashmir administration has dismissed the son of Hizbul Mujahideen chief and most-wanted terrorist Syed Salahuddin as well as wife of JKLF leader and terror accused Bitta Karateboth employed in its two different departments, over alleged terror links. Two other senior academics working at Kashmir University were also shown the door, taking the total number of J&K government employees removed under Article 311 of the Constitution for allegedly carrying out or supporting terror activities to 35.
Syed Abdul Mueedwho was working as an IT manager in Jammu & Kashmir Entrepreneurship Development Institute (JKEDI), is the third son of Salahuddin, who escaped to PoK nearly three decades ago to unite different secessionist outfits under the umbrella of the United Jihad Council, to be sacked over terror links. Salahuddin’s two other sons, Ahmad Shakeel and Shahid Yousuf, were dismissed from J&K government service earlier, also under Article 311. Both are currently in jail and facing trial. A source said the three dismissed sons of Salahuddin were found to have been “inducted in the government system in the 2000s in brazen violation of norms and after circumventing the vetting process”.
Three more of Salahuddin’s six sons are still employed in J&K administration.
Mueed was appointed in 2012 as an IT consultant on a contractual basis, with a source saying that at least three officers on the selection panel that cleared his appointment were known terror sympathisers. Mueed’s contractual position was subsequently converted into a permanent one without the mandatory CID verification. Between 2013 and 2019, at least three terror attacks were executed in and around JKEDI complex in Pampore and Mueed is said to have facilitated these attacks by giving targets and logistics. He was allegedly also indoctrinating young boys and girls attending JKEDI.
Assabah Arzoom Khan, wife of Bitta Karate, who had once admitted on camera to massacring Kashmiri Pandits and is currently in jail on terror and terror-funding charges, was a 2011 batch JKAS officer and “a diehard secessionist having deep ties with terrorist outfits and ISI”, said a J&K government officer. Assabah’s first job in 2003, allegedly secured through the back door, was in Sher-e-Kashmir University of Agricultural Science and Technology. Between 2003 and 2007, she was absent from work and was sacked in August 2007. Sources claimed that during her absence from work, Assabah travelled to Germany, UK, Helsinki, Sri Lanka and Thailand. She is accused of having worked as a cash mule for JKLF. While her departure to these countries was through airports, her arrival in India was mostly by road via Nepal and Bangladesh to escape detection of the dirty money she was allegedly couriering to India to be pumped into terror activities.
In 2011, Assabah cleared the JKAS exam and is said to have married Bitta Karate within few months.
Two other government employees sacked on Saturday were working at Kashmir University. Muheet Ahmad Bhat, a scientist in the department of computer sciences, was an executive member of the Kashmir University Teachers’ Association (KUTA) from 2017 to 2019 and its president from 2017 to 2019. He purportedly played a key role in organising student protests and street protests in 2016. Muheet is said to have distributed KUTA funds to stone-pelters and some families of terrorists.
Majid Husaain Qadri, who was working as assistant professor in the department of management studies, was dismissed for being a “hardcore terrorist of LeT”, said a source. As an MBA student in the same university in 2001, he came in contact with two Pakistani LeT terrorists and became LeT’s pointperson for Kashmir University for radicalisation and recruitment. In 2002, he was allegedly tasked to act as an arms courier. In 2003, he became the spokesperson of LeT. A sniper rifle was also recovered from him. He was detained under PSA for two years and subsequently acquitted by the court. Sources said that between 2002 and 2004, Majid provided logistics support for terror attacks. He was appointed as assistant professor in Kashmir University in 2010.