J&K People’s Movement founder Shah Faesal likely to rejoin civil service

Shah Faesal, a former IAS officer who topped the 2010 civil services exam, and later floated the Jammu and Kashmir People’s Movement (JKPM), is likely to rejoin government service, as per sources.

On January 09, 2019, Faesal resigned from the civil services. That time, his Facebook post was also seen as a strong indicator that he intends to join politics.

“To protest against the unabated killings in Kashmir and lack of any sincere reach-out from the Union government; the marginalization and invisiblisation of around 200 million Indian Muslims at the hands of Hindutva forces reducing them to second-class citizens; insidious attacks on the special identity of the J&K state and growing culture of intolerance and hate in the mainland India in the name of hyper-nationalism, I have decided to resign from IAS," Shah Faesal wrote then.

However, for the past few days, rumors are ripe in the Valley that despite submitting his resignation and forming a political party, his name was not removed from the list of J&K cadre IAS officers on the website of Jammu and Kashmir government where his name figures in the seniority list of J&K IAS cadre officers at serial number 36. It also mentions his place of posting as: ‘The officer has submitted his resignation, which has been forwarded to the DOPT, GOI for acceptance’.

On Sunday, Faesal deleted the information about his being the president of the Jammu and Kashmir People’s Movement (JKPM) from his Twitter handle.

While wishing anonymity, a source close to Faesal said that he wanted to travel to the USA and settle there after his release but he wasn’t allowed to do so by the government, "rather he has been given 2 choices: one is carrying out his political activities without talking about the Modi governments decisions of abrogation of Article 370 or rejoin the civil service. Mostly, Faesal is planning to go with the second option choice”.

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In January last year, he founded the JKPM amid much fanfare and expectations of an alternative political platform for the youth of the erstwhile state of J&K. However, on August 14 that year, Faesal was detained by immigration authorities at the Indira Gandhi International Airport in New Delhi and later was handed over to Delhi Police, which put him on a flight back to Srinagar. As per the officials, he (Faesal) was going to Istanbul.

In Srinagar, Faesal was taken to the Sher-i-Kashmir International Conference Centre (SKICC) where he was lodged for 4 months along with other mainstream politicians who were detained after the abrogation of Article 370.

Faesal was also booked under the draconian Public Safety Act (PSA). In his dossier, the Jammu and Kashmir administration mentions that his “support for soft separatism” through social media posts warranted his detention. The dossier also reads about alleged “provocative statements” made by Faesal.

On June 3 this year, the Jammu and Kashmir government revoked the Public Safety Act (PSA) against Shah Faesal.

(PTI Photo)

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