Journalists of the valley, owners of various newspapers, and a few non local scribes held a peaceful march against the brutal assassination of Rising Kashmir’s founding editor Shujaat Bukhari and ousted BJP Minister Lal Singh’s threat to valley based journalists.
Journalists marched from Press Enclave, Lal Chowk to Ghanta Ghar where they sat, displaying placards that read, “We seek justice for Shujaat”, “Bring Shujaat’s killers to justice”, “I am Shujaat”, “punish Lal Singh” and statements regarding how choked up journalism is in Kashmir.
Journalists recalled their memories with Bukhari with most of them saying, “We cannot register the fact that he is no more. It seems like he is gone for a long trip.”
BJP’s Singh, who was the Forest Minister in the cabinet of Mehbooba Mufti, was forced to resign after he participated in rally which was taken out in support of the accused in the gruesome rape and murder of an eight year old girl in Kathua earlier this year.
While addressing a presser in Jammu, in which he once again demanded a CBI probe into the matter, Singh said, “They (Kashmir’s journalists) have created wrong atmosphere about the whole case. Now, I would like to ask them to draw a line of journalism and think about how to live.”
Sitting in the Rising Kashmir (RK) office, Umar Farooq Khan Amiri, Administrator of the newspaper says that it is hard to realize that our boss is no more.
“It is a great loss to all who knew him,” he said.
On that fateful day when Bukhari was assassinated Umar had to accompany Bukhari as he was going to drop him near the parking. However, a phone call and an empty office held him back.
“At that time Shujaat Sahab also received a call. I decided to stay in office. As soon as I climbed the second stair, I heard a sound similar to firecrackers but they were bullets,” says Umar adding that he was shocked to see Bukhari dead.
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In a veiled threat, while referring to the brutal assassination of the Rising Kashmir editor Shujaat Bukhari, Singh added, “Are they waiting for similar incident that has happened with Basharat (apparently referring to Shujaat)?”
Bukhari was assassinated on June 14 by unidentified gunmen outside his office in Srinagar, a day before Eid and few minutes before Iftaar (breaking of Fast during Ramzan). Bukhari succumbed to his injuries and was declared brought dead at the hospital.
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein during his opening statement of the 38th session of the Human Rights Council on Monday said that he was deeply saddened by the assassination of veteran journalist Shujaat Bukhari.
While calling him a human rights defender, Hussein said, “I am tremendously saddened by the assassination last week of Shujaat Bukhari, a courageous human rights defender actively working for peace, including through his participation in the Track Two diplomacy seeking to help both India and Pakistan put an end to the violence.”
The Committee to Protect Journalists while strongly condemned the killing of the editor said that Indian authorities must bring killers of Bukhari to justice.
