New Delhi: Back in 2023, security and intelligence agencies had termed, in an assessment report, a senior doctor at Srinagar’s Shri Maharaja Hari Singh (SMHS) Hospital as a “revered agent of Pakistan-sponsored separatist-terrorist network in J&K”, based on his “activities and statements”.
The doctor, Nisar-ul-Hassan, is now in the headlines for being employed at Al-Falah School of Medical Sciences and Research Centre in Faridabad. The institute is at the centre of the probe into the Red Fort blast, which is believed to have involved doctors employed there.
Based on the security agencies’ assessment report, the Jammu & Kashmir administration dismissed Hassan from service in November 2023. He was at the time working as an assistant professor in the medicine department at SMHS Hospital.
“The Lieutenant Governor is satisfied after considering the facts and circumstances of the case and on the basis of the information available, that the activities of Dr Nisar-uI-Hassan, Assistant Professor (Medicine), SMHS Hospital, Srinagar, are such as to warrant his dismissal from service,” the administration stated in the order dismissing him from service.
The administration invoked the special provisions of Article 311 of the Constitution and stated that the Lieutenant Governor did not need to hold an inquiry against Hassan; hence, he was dismissed from service with immediate effect.
Security and intelligence agencies had submitted in their assessment report that Hassan was working on the instructions of Pakistan-based secessionists and that he was the “chief executive officer” of the secessionism project.
“From the activities and statements issued by Hassan, it is unflinchingly established that he has been a revered agent of a Pakistan-sponsored separatist-terrorist network in J&K to inspire and radicalise youth into terrorism, stone-pelting and separatism. Besides, he has acted as a rank provocateur of the general public, including employees, to nurture, promote and foment separatism within the system,” the assessment report said, according to a source privy to it.
A resident of Baramulla, Hassan completed MBBS studies from Government Medical College in Srinagar in 1991 and joined as a house surgeon in the department of medicine at SMHS Hospital for a period of six months. He moved on to the district hospital in Sopore and became a junior resident at Sher-i-Kashmir Institute of Medical Sciences in Srinagar.
He was also selected for a ‘clinic observership’ in England, where he worked for four months in various hospitals and returned to join government service at a hospital in Bandipora. He has been associated with Srinagar’s SMHS Hospital since 1997 and was also the “self-styled president” of Doctors Association of Kashmir (DAK) for the last eight years, the source told ThePrint, citing details from the report.
According to the faculty list on the Al-Falah medical college website, Hassan was a regularised employee there, working as a professor in the general medicine department.
ThePrint has sent a detailed query regarding Hassan’s employment status and timeline of association with Al-Falah to Vice-Chancellor Bhupinder Kaur Anand. This report will be updated if a response is received.
The Jammu & Kashmir Police this month busted an alleged terror module of the Jaish-e-Mohammad, arresting two doctors employed at Al-Falah medical college for alleged involvement in it.
One other doctor employed there, Umar Nabi, is believed to have escaped the police net and drove the explosive-laden car outside Red Fort Monday evening that burst into flames, killing at least 12, including the doctor.
Al-Falah University stated Wednesday that it had got to know about two of its doctors being detained by investigating agencies.
“We wish to make it clear that the university has no connection with the said persons apart from them working in their official capacities with the university,” Bhupinder Kaur Anand, Vice Chancellor, said in the statement.
(Edited by Nida Fatima Siddiqui)
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