NDTV :
After evolving incidents since the death of Indian-administered Kashmir’s separatist icon on September 1, India has now terminated a grandson of Syed Ali Shah Geelani from a government job.
Anees-Ul-Islam, the victim, was employed at a state-run convention centre, sources told NDTV.
The move behind the sacking of Anees-Ul-Islam came after it was found that the separatist had “bartered violence for his grandson’s job”, sources said.
Anees was appointed research officer in Sher-i-Kashmir International Conference Centre or SKICC under the Jammu and Kashmir Tourism Department in 2016 when People’s Democratic Party leader Mehbooba Mufti was the chief minister (CM).
Just few months before getting the government job, however, Anees had gone to Pakistan, sources alleged.
“It is learnt that there was pressure from top echelon in the government to appoint Anees and the whole recruitment process was manipulated,” said a person with direct knowledge of the matter, preferring anonymity.
Anees also allegedly helped some people in flying drones in and around Srinagar to film protests after Hizbul Mujahideen terrorist Burhan Wani was shot dead by security forces in 2016.
“His appointment was found to be highly irregular… It is suspected that the appointment straightaway to a gazetted grade equivalent position in the government-funded and controlled SKICC was a deal to bring down violence during the Burhan Wani agitation between the then CMhief Minister and Geelani,” the source said. “There was no urgency to fill the post that had been vacant since 2005.
But some officers were suddenly in a hurry after Anees returned from Pakistan to look for any vacant position in SKICC. Any assessment by any security agency anywhere in the world under the given circumstances could not have granted security clearance to him for occupying a public position. But he was cleared due to pressure from the top,” he added.
Tensions in the Himalayan territory, which is disputed between India and Pakistan, have heightened since Geelani, 92, died in the main city of Srinagar.
Soon after his death, Indian authorities imposed a lockdown in Kashmir and also blocked access to the Internet.
India booked Geelani’s family in a sweeping anti-terrorism law for allegedly chanting anti-New Delhi slogans and wrapping his body with Pakistan’s flag after he died.
The separatist leader’s son Naseem Geelani claimed that police took his father’s body away to be buried in the middle of the night just hours after his death, and did not allow the family to perform last rites.
However, Indian police have refuted those allegations. Geelani, a popular figure in the region, spent over five decades fighting for self-determination for people in Indian-controlled Kashmir.
Islamabad observed a day of national mourning after Geelani’s death and funeral prayers for the leader were held across Pakistan and in Turkey.
