TAUSEEF AHMAD
SRINAGAR, Jan 13: Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha has launched one of the most far-reaching counter-terror offensives inside Jammu and Kashmir’s civil administration, striking not at militants in forests but at the terror infrastructure hidden inside government offices, schools, hospitals and utility departments.
In a decisive action under Article 311 (2) (c) of the Constitution, the LG has terminated five serving government employees after intelligence agencies established that they were active operatives and facilitators of Pakistan-backed terrorist organisations.
The five — Mohd Ishfaq, Tariq Ahmad Shah, Bashir Ahmad Mir, Farooq Ahmad Bhat and Mohd Yousf — were not passive sympathisers.
According to detailed security dossiers, they were embedded assets of Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) and Hizb-ul-Mujahideen (HM), operating from within government machinery to provide logistics, recruitment, shelter, transport, intelligence on security force movements and cross-border facilitation for terror groups.
This action is part of a systematic clean-up drive launched by Manoj Sinha in 2021, aimed at uprooting the entire terror ecosystem that Pakistan’s ISI and its proxy outfits have built inside Kashmir over decades. Since then, more than 85 government employees across Jammu and Kashmir have already been dismissed for terror links, making it the largest institutional purge of terrorist infiltration ever carried out in the Union Territory.
Security agencies say terror outfits deliberately infiltrated government departments to create what they call a “silent terror grid” — employees who drew salaries from the Indian state while covertly serving the enemy. LG Sinha’s doctrine has been to destroy this hidden backbone so that terror groups are left without money, movement, communication, shelter or inside information.
At the centre of the latest crackdown is Mohd Ishfaq, a government school teacher who was initially appointed as Rehbar-e-Taleem and later confirmed in 2013.
Despite being entrusted with shaping young minds, Ishfaq was in reality a Lashkar-e-Taiba operative in direct contact with Pakistan-based commander Mohammad Amin alias Abu Khubaib, a designated terrorist operating from across the border.
Ishfaq was assigned an operational role by LeT and tasked with helping execute the killing of a police officer in Doda in January 2022. He was arrested in April 2022 before he could carry out the plan, and weapons and ammunition were recovered from his associates.
Intelligence agencies further revealed that Ishfaq used his classroom to spread radical ideology and recruit youth, and even after being jailed he continued to indoctrinate inmates, making him a critical asset of the terror network.
Tariq Ahmad Shah, a lab technician in the Health Department posted at Sub-District Hospital Bijbehara in Anantnag, was a key figure in Hizb-ul-Mujahideen’s Pakistan-based command structure. Tariq had been under the influence of HM since a young age and was closely related to Amin Baba, a former HM Divisional Commander from 1998 to 2005.
Investigations by the State Investigation Agency revealed that Tariq facilitated the stay of Amin Baba in Anantnag and later arranged his exfiltration to Pakistan through the Attari-Wagah border. This escape allowed Amin Baba to revive terror operations from Pakistan.
Intelligence inputs say Amin Baba is now based in Islamabad, regularly attending meetings with ISI, LeT and JeM, where he trains HM cadres, recruits new youth for terror ranks and plans attacks in India. Despite being arrested under UAPA and later released on bail, Tariq resumed his terror role, maintaining continuous contact with terrorists and their supporters.
Bashir Ahmad Mir, an assistant lineman in the Public Health Engineering Department in Bandipora, had for years functioned as a covert LeT overground worker in the sensitive Gurez sector.
He was responsible for guiding terrorist movements, providing logistical support, sharing real-time information about the movement of security forces and giving shelter to militants. His role was exposed in September 2021 when police received intelligence that two LeT terrorists were hiding in his house.
In the ensuing anti-terror operation, both terrorists were neutralised and two AK-47 rifles along with a large cache of ammunition were recovered, exposing how deeply terror had penetrated the government system.
Farooq Ahmad Bhat, a field worker in the Forest Department in Anantnag, was another Hizb-ul-Mujahideen operative who acted as a personal assistant to a former MLA linked to HM. Investigators revealed that Farooq played a central role in the escape of Amin Baba to Pakistan, using his government identity card and official vehicle to evade checkpoints and avoid security scrutiny. He even dropped Amin Baba at a naka point before the terrorist crossed the international border. A government gypsy was used in the operation, driven by an official driver.
Farooq was arrested in 2024 and later granted bail in 2025, but intelligence agencies say he continues to remain in contact with terrorists and their sympathisers, posing a continuing threat to national security.
Mohd Yousf, a driver in the Health and Medical Education Department posted in Bemina, Srinagar, was part of a Pakistan-directed terror logistics network. He was in regular contact with Bashir Ahmad Bhat, a Pakistan-based HM terrorist, and was entrusted with procurement of arms, transportation of ammunition and delivery of terror funds in the Ganderbal area.
On July 20, 2024, police intercepted a vehicle in which Yousf was travelling along with his associate Eashan Hamid and recovered a pistol, ammunition, a grenade and ₹5 lakh in cash.
During interrogation, Yousf admitted the consignment had been received on the instructions of his Pakistani handler and was meant to be delivered to terrorists. He also revealed that he helped establish communication between Pakistan-based terrorists and jailed militants by supplying phones.
Security officials say the use of Article 311(2)(c) reflects the extraordinary gravity of the threat posed by these individuals. The provision allows immediate dismissal without departmental inquiry when national security is at risk, ensuring that terror assets cannot use legal delays to continue operating inside the system.
With more than 85 government employees already purged since 2021, LG Manoj Sinha’s campaign is steadily cleansing Jammu and Kashmir’s governance framework of subversive elements, restoring integrity to public institutions and breaking Pakistan’s long-running strategy of embedding terror operatives inside the Indian state.
Senior officials describe this phase as the most decisive internal strike against terror since militancy began in Kashmir, noting that while gunmen can be replaced, a shattered support system cannot.
In the words of one senior security source, “The war is no longer only in the forests and on the borders. It is now inside offices, files, hospitals and classrooms — and that war is being won.”
