Aga Ruhullah, Iltija Mufti, Mehraj Malik condemn misconduct against woman KAS officer

Political leaders across Jammu and Kashmir have condemned the verbal abuse and public humiliation of a senior woman Jammu and Kashmir Administrative Service (JKAS) officer by a senior IAS officer during an official departmental review meeting, with the incident triggering widespread outrage among political circles and the administrative fraternity.

National Conference MP Aga Ruhullah, PDP leader Iltija Mufti and Aam Aadmi Party MLA Mehraj Malik have publicly criticised the incident, raising questions about the treatment of local officers and demanding accountability.

In a strongly worded statement, Aga Ruhullah accused the Administrative Secretary, Labour and Employment, of shouting down the woman officer and allegedly threatening her career after she sought to finish speaking during a meeting attended by other officials.

“He raised his voice. She raised her dignity,” Ruhullah said, alleging that the officer had used the threat of affecting her career as a means of intimidation.

Praising the woman officer for remaining composed during the exchange, Ruhullah linked the incident to the changes in Jammu and Kashmir's administrative and political landscape following the abrogation of Article 370.

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“This is what abrogation of Art 370 has brought upon us,” he said, alleging that officers in the administration were behaving like “conquerors”. He also warned the Lieutenant Governor's office and Chief Minister's administration that any action against the woman officer for standing up for her dignity would have consequences.

PDP leader Iltija Mufti also condemned the conduct, quoting the abusive language purportedly used during the exchange and questioning how a senior officer could address a woman colleague in such terms.

“Take your god complex & dirty slurs elsewhere. We won’t tolerate this in Kashmir,” Mufti said in a social media post.

She further alleged that since 2019, Kashmiri KAS and IAS officers had been deliberately sidelined and that local officers in the civil administration and police were being undermined.

Calling for immediate action, Mufti tagged Chief Minister Omar Abdullah and Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha, demanding that the IAS officer be suspended. She also questioned whether the same standards of accountability applied to senior officials as to Kashmiri employees facing disciplinary action.

AAP MLA Mehraj Malik also denounced the incident, framing it as an example of what he described as the treatment of Jammu and Kashmir's people and officers by officials brought in from outside the Union Territory.

“This is what these Dictators brought from outside J&K are doing with the people of Jammu and Kashmir in Jammu and Kashmir,” Malik said, adding that an IAS officer from Bihar had behaved shamefully towards a JKAS officer from Jammu and Kashmir.

The Jammu and Kashmir Administrative Service Fraternity has also strongly condemned the verbal abuse, personal insults and public humiliation of the senior woman officer, a member of the 2015 batch, during a virtual departmental review meeting held from the Civil Secretariat in Srinagar on October 14.

While acknowledging the importance of administrative accountability and performance monitoring, the fraternity maintained that these responsibilities could not justify abusive language, intimidation or conduct that undermined the dignity of a serving officer.