Overview
- The J&K administration, which issued the orders Wednesday, named Education Department worker Farhat Ali Khanday and Rural Development staffer Mohammad Shafi Dar as associates of Hizbul Mujahideen and Lashkar-e-Taiba.
- Investigators say Khanday first surfaced in a 2011 hawala probe tied to payments to militant families, and a special court took a chargesheet against him in 2022.
- Police records state Dar was apprehended in April 2025 at a joint checkpoint, and an AK-56 rifle, a grenade, and other ammunition were recovered as he allegedly aided LeT operatives in Bandipora.
- Officials invoked Article 311(2)(c), which allows dismissal without a departmental inquiry on security grounds, after case reviews that drew on CID inputs, a Special Task Force, and a committee led by the chief secretary.
- The campaign has removed about 90 employees since 2019, and parties like the PDP and civil society figures have criticized the terminations as punitive and lacking due process for families that lose a breadwinner.