The Jammu and Kashmir administration on Saturday suspended eight officials and terminated a contractual employee from service after “pro-separatist content” in two books in school libraries sparked protests by the Bharatiya Janata Party, The Hindu reported.

The books – Personalities and Legends of J&K by Hilal Ahmed and Santosh Meena, and Great Personalities of Jammu and Kashmir by Dr Sushant Giri – have been withdrawn from school libraries. The first book was published by Oberoi Book Service, Jammu, while the second one was published by Anurag Prakashan, Delhi.

An official spokesperson said that the book Personalities and Legends of J&K contained a detailed passage on J&K Liberation Front founder Maqbool Bhat, who was hanged in 1984 for seeking independence for Kashmir, The Hindu reported. The spokesperson said the inclusion of the reference reflected “serious negligence, dereliction of duty and lack of proper due diligence”.

The books were supplied to school libraries as part of the Samagra Shiksha education

The order by Ram Niwas Sharma, Commissioner/Secretary, School Education Department, also blacklisted the authors and publishing houses from publishing any other material in Jammu and Kashmir, The Indian Express reported.

The officials who have been suspended are Fazil Imran Saddiqui, Gurjeet Singh, Sanjeev Sharma, Kore Pannu, Shazia Kouser, Imtiaz Ahmad Mir, Niranjan Sharma, Renu Mengi and Rajmohini.

The BJP had protested the inclusion of the...

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