Following his policy of zero tolerance towards overground workers of terror networks in Jammu and Kashmir, Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha, on Wednesday, terminated the services of two government employees allegedly associated with Lashkar-e-Taiba and Hizbul Mujahideen.
These dismissals were executed under Article 311(2)(c) of the Constitution of India as part of Sinha’s ongoing drive to root out terrorists embedded in the government machinery.
This is not the first instance when LG Sinha has shown his unrelenting commitment to rooting out OGW sympathisers and associates of known anti-India and Pakistan-backed terrorist organisations operating on Indian soil.
In January this year, Sinha ordered the termination of five government employees for their alleged links with banned terrorist organisations. The dismissed employees included a government-employed teacher, a laboratory technician, an assistant lineman, an employee from the Forest Department and a driver in the Health and Medical Education Department.
The driver, lodged in Central Jail Srinagar, was an indexed overground worker of Hizb-ul-Mujahideen who was in contact with his Pakistan-based handler.
LG Sinha means business when it comes to extirpating terrorists from the state machinery. Over 90 government employees with terror links have been sacked so far. 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”.
LG Sinha had recently vowed that he would not rest until the last thread of the cancer of terror was purged from the body of government machinery. He has also vowed that security agencies will completely, decisively, and permanently end the scourge of terrorism.
Hizbul Mujahideen’s Farhat Ali Khanday-Education Deptt, Ramban
One of the terrorists, Farhat Ali Khanday, was a Class-IV employee of the Education Department in Ramban. However, in reality, Farhat was operating for the terror outfit Hizbul Mujahideen and used his government position as a cover to revive terrorism and build a larger terrorist network in Ramban and the surrounding areas.
Sources said 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 Hizbul Mujahideen terrorist network in the Jammu Division. “We didn’t know that Farhat was working for Hizbul Mujahideen until April 2011. His name came out in April 2011, during the interrogation of a Hizbul Mujahideen terrorist, who was nabbed by J&K Police for distributing terror money to 7 terrorist families. J&K Police picked up Farhat and he was put behind bars, but later in October 2011, he managed bail and continued his terror activities,” sources said.
It was learned during the probe that Farhat had shown no remorse or change of mind. His activities were monitored and a charge sheet was filed against him in a special court in 2022. It was learnt that Farhat was making contacts with local terrorist networks for furthering terrorist activities and strengthening the cadres of Hizbul Mujahideen. A 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,” top sources added.
LeT’s Mohammad Shafi Dar-Rural Development Deptt, Bandipora
Another government employee sacked by Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha is Mohammad Shafi Dar from Bandipora. He 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.
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 a Pakistan-based terror outfit to provide safe houses to terrorists, facilitate their movement and transportation, share sensitive information related to movement and deployment of police and security forces and raise an 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. 01 AK-56 rifle, grenade and other ammunition were recovered from Shafi,” Sources 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.