Srinagar, January 9: Shah Faesal, who topped the Indian Administrative Services (IAS) exam in 2010, resigned from the civil service. Shah Faesal is expected to join the National Conference and would contest the upcoming Lok Sabha election. In a Facebook post, he said he quit "to protest against the unabated killings in Kashmir".

Shah Faesal is 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 invisiblization 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 Indian Administrative Service (sic)," he wrote.

"One of my important tasks here-after will be train and guide aspiring civil servants to help them in achieving this dream. I will be addressing a press conference on Friday to share my future plans. I will look forward to your support and blessings in this new mission," he added.

After joining the IAS, Faesal was appointed the director of school education in the Kashmir Valley. Once his resignation is accepted, he would officially join the National Conference. Faesal, who hails from the Lolab valley in Kupwara, is likely to contest from the Baramulla constituency in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections.

Faesal was subject 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. He had tweeted, “Population +patriarchy +illiteracy +alcohol +porn +technology +anarchy = rapistan(sic)”.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Jan 09, 2019 04:39 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).