Former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister and Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) president Mehbooba Mufti on Tuesday criticised Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha’s decision to terminate the services of five government employees for their alleged links with banned terrorist organisations, calling the move “arbitrary” and unjust.
In a post on X, Mufti said such actions had been “dangerously normalised” in the Union Territory. “This isn’t just about the employee. Behind every ‘termination’ is a family pushed into darkness and a form of collective punishment with entire households condemned overnight by draconian Government of India policies that mock the rule of law and discard due process,” she wrote, adding that the “normalisation of injustice must stop.”
Her remarks came a day after the Lieutenant Governor ordered the dismissal of five employees accused of having active associations with proscribed militant outfits.
According to official sources, those terminated include a government school teacher, a laboratory technician, an assistant lineman, an employee of the Forest Department and a driver working in the Health and Medical Education Department.
Reports said the driver, currently lodged in Central Jail, Srinagar, has been identified as an indexed overground worker of the Hizb-ul-Mujahideen and was allegedly in sustained contact with a Pakistan-based handler.
The administration has maintained that the action was taken in the interest of national security.
