Description
Shah Faesal (born 17 May 1983) is an Indian bureaucrat currently posted as Deputy Secretary in the Ministry of Culture (India) In 2010, he became the first Kashmiri to top the Indian Civil Services Examination. He tendered his resignation from the Indian bureaucracy in protest on 9 January 2019, citing "unabated killings" in Kashmir among other things, which, reportedly, was "never accepted" by the central government and he even withdrew the same later.
On 4 February 2019, Shah Faesal began his momentary political life by giving a public speech in his hometown of Kupwara. Shortly after, on 16 March 2019, he announced his own political party, the Jammu and Kashmir People's Movement (JKPM). He left politics on 10 August 2020 and quit the JKPM.
He was reinstated in Indian Administrative Service in April 2022 by the Modi government. In August 2022, he was posted as Deputy Secretary in Union Ministry for Tourism.