Srinagar, January 11: Shah Faesal who resigned from the civil service on January 9, has decided not to join any political party. He said that he would not be joining any political party soon to contest the upcoming parliamentary elections. He also said that he would be interacting with youngsters of the valley before taking any decision to join politics. He also added that the government is not taking any initiative to bring back Kashmiri Pandits to the valley. Omar Abdullah Defends IAS Officer Shah Faesal Who Faces Disciplinary Action.

After resigning, Faesal in his Facebook post said that he quit "to protest against the unabated killings in Kashmir". He was the only IAS officer from Jammu and Kashmir to have ever topped the UPSC exam. "To protest against the unabated killings in Kashmir, and lack of any sincere reach-out from the Union Government; the marginalization and invisibilization 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 hypernationalism, I have decided to resign from the Indian Administrative Service (sic)," he wrote.

He was 2010-batch IAS officer. Earlier, reports surfaced that the 2010-batch IAS topper would join National Conference. After Faesal’s resignation, former finance minister P Chidambaram slammed the Narendra Modi government. Through his tweet, he expressed sadness over Faesal’s resignation. He wrote, “Though sad, I salute Mr @shahfaesal IAS (now resigned). Every word of his statement is true and is an indictment of the BJP government. The world will take note of his cry of anguish and defiance.” The former finance minister also cited the example of Julio Ribeiro, a former DGP of Punjab and a former commissioner of Mumbai Police, who said the same thing. Rahul Gandhi Writes to Shah Faesal, Expresses Solidarity With the IAS Officer.

After joining the IAS, Faesal was appointed the director of school education in the Kashmir Valley. Faesal was subjected to a disciplinary proceeding initiated by the Jammu and Kashmir government at the request of the Centre’s Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) for posting a tweet about frequent rapes in the country.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Jan 11, 2019 05:57 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).