‘Highly condemnable’: Hurriyat chief on dismissal of 3 govt employees in J&K

Srinagar, Feb 15 (PTI) Hurriyat Conference chairman Mirwaiz Umar Farooq on Saturday condemned the dismissal of three employees by the lieutenant governor and asked if the government wanted to remove all Kashmiris from the government jobs.

Lt Governor Manoj Sinha, earlier in the day, invoked Article 311 (2) (c) of the Constitution to terminate the services of three government employees, including a jailed policeman, after investigation by law enforcement and intelligence agencies clearly established their terror links, officials said.

“The termination of three more state employees in such authoritarian manner is highly condemnable. Do the rulers want to remove all Kashmiris slowly and steadily from government services and render them jobless?” the Mirwaiz said in a post on X.

He said it was the duty of the elected government to take up this issue on an urgent basis.

“It is the duty of the elected representatives to take up this issue urgently with the concerned as they have committed in their manifesto, and stop this harassment,” he said.

The Mirwaiz also condemned the seizure of books written by Islamic scholar Abul A’ala Maududi.

“Also cracking down on Islamic literature and seizing them from bookstores while condemnable is ridiculous. Policing thought by seizing books is absurd to say the least, in the time of access to all information on virtual highways,” Mirwaiz added.

Police on Friday seized more than 600 books written by Maududi, the founder and ideologue of Jamaat-e-Islami in the Indian sub-continent.