JOB THREAT REDEFINED

JAMMU & KASHMIR

- Moazum Mohammad

It has been more than three weeks since the Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) government sacked Idrees Jan Mir ‘in the interest of the security of the state’ on April 30, ending his 13-year-long career with the state education department. A former teacher at a government girls’ high school in Kralpora village in northern Kashmir’s Kupwara, the 39-year-old was the first of six employees recently fired by the Union Territory government on the same grounds. Others include jailed J&K deputy superintendent of police Davinder Singh—who was caught travelling with a top Hizbul Mujahideen militant and two operatives in Kashmir in January 2020—as well as a naib tehsildar and a college professor from south Kashmir and two teachers from Kupwara in north Kashmir.

Ever since Mir was handed his termination letter by revenue officials on May 1 in his native Dardpora village in Kupwara district—known as ‘the village of widows’ because of the 300odd women in this hamlet whose husbands have disappeared or been killed since the armed insurgency erupted in 1989—a steady stream of people have made their way to his doorstep to express solidarity. Many among them are his former students, some of whom also work for the government. “I fail to understand how I am a threat to the state,” says Mir, a father of two daughters and a son. “It is harassment and nothing else. They snatched my employment and my GP (general provident) fund, but not my students who have [stood by] me. I am not a mere pen-and-paper teacher; I helped my students with their overall development. Which is also why my students can’t come to terms with this arbitrary decision.”