Overview
- Officials said the step targets alleged overground workers embedded in government offices, with more than 85 employees removed since 2021 in a continuing purge.
- Those dismissed are Mohammad Ishfaq (teacher), Tariq Ahmad (lab technician), Bashir Ahmad Mir (assistant lineman), Farooq Ahmad Bhat (forest field worker) and Mohammad Yousuf (health department driver).
- Agencies allege links to Lashkar-e-Taiba and Hizb-ul-Mujahideen, citing dossier-based surveillance, arrests and recoveries of weapons and cash.
- Allegations include Ishfaq’s reported contact with LeT commander Abu Khubaib and a 2022 plot against a police officer, Mir’s house sheltering two LeT militants killed in a 2021 operation, and Yousuf’s July 2024 interception with a pistol, a grenade and Rs 5 lakh.
- Investigators also say Tariq Ahmad and Farooq Bhat facilitated Hizb commander Amin Baba’s 2005 escape to Pakistan, while opposition and civil-society figures denounce the dismissals as arbitrary and corrosive to public trust.