Srinagar – The family of the Kashmiri health worker who was dismissed from services over alleged online posts cheering the victory of Pakistan over India in the T20 World Cup has sought forgiveness from the authorities.
The health worker – identified as operation theatre technician Safiya Majeed – was engaged on academic arrangement basis under SRO-24 and was dismissed from the Government Medical College in Rajouri.
Abdul Majeed, Safiya’s father, pleaded ignorance of the content of the message that his daughter had allegedly posted online. “I have no information on what she had posted but if she has erred, she should be forgiven and given a chance to correct herself,” he told a local news agency.
The dismissed health worker, Abdul Majeed said, was the only source of income for
Her family. “She is the only source of income for her family and sole hope to turn around our fate,” he said. “If my daughter has done anything wrong, please forgive her. We are very poor. We can’t do anything except apologise.”
Safiya had been employed in GMC Rajouri for less than a year and was terminated for “activity which seems to be disloyalty towards nation” and her alleged failure to report back to duty after the expiry of her leave.
The order, issued by GMC Rajouri principal Dr Brij Mohan, also stated that “no employee of the institution will be allowed to be disloyal to the nation”. The health worker is alleged to have uploaded the messages as her Whatsapp status on the night of October 24, close to midnight when the Pakistan cricket team won a major victory – a first in international cricket – over India.
The health worker is among many Kashmiris persecuted for cheering Pakistan’s victory in the October match against India. Three students in Uttar Pradesh’s Agra were dismissed from their colleges and booked by the local police for sedition.
The J&K Students Association, an organisation of student leaders who aide Kashmiri students in distress outside the Valley, said that it had hired the services of noted lawyer Madhavan Dutt —also the counsel for journalist Siddique Kappan, in jail facing sedition and terror charges by the UP government — to fight their case.
Nasir Kheuhami, a student leader with the organisation, also wrote to the UP chief minister Yogi Adityanath to revoke the FIR against the three students as supporting any team was their “right.”
“But if they wrote any provocative thing on social media which hurt the sentiments of people, that is wrong and unjustified. They should have enjoyed the match with the true spirit of a sportsman,” Khuehami added.
In Kashmir, the police had registered two cases under anti-terrorism law against Kashmiri medical students for celebrating India’s defeat. The move was widely condemned by political parties.
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