(Image source from: The Wire)
A senior journalist and chief editor of a best-selling "Rising Kashmir" newspaper have been killed on Thursday by anonymous gunmen in a drive-by shooting in Srinagar.
Shujaat Bukhari, 48, the editor-in-chief of Rising Kashmir newspaper, was shot at close range in the onslaught in which his two security officers, Abdul Hameed and Mumtaz Ahmad, were also killed. He was shot while he was in his car, having just left his Press Colony office just ahead Iftar.
The incident has put an already taut state on edge and led chief minister Mehbobba Mufti to expound the attack as a "new low for terrorism".
Union home minister Rajnath Singh said, "there is no doubt that terrorists have killed Shujaat Bukhari." He also spoke to the Jammu and Kashmir CM Mehbooba Mufti late on Wednesday, and said she was "distraught".
According to Jammu and Kashmir police chief SP Vaid, the killers were ready and waiting for Shujaat Bukhari to come out of the building and it seems to be a planned attack. It was not unsubtle, however, who was accountable for the attack.
The CCTV footage released by the police, shows the three attackers on a bike, while the rider was wearing a helmet and other two men with face masks to conceal their identity.
(Source: NDTV) A CCTV footage released by police, shows three attackers on a motorcycle
A well-known journalist for three decades had worked for 15 years at The Hindu newspaper and was very well known as a crucial Kashmiri voice. He was a proponent of a halcyon resolution of the Kashmir issue and playing a cardinal role in organizing several conferences pertaining former diplomats and generals from India and Pakistan.
The violent death led to an outpouring of condolence messages from people of all the sides of the political spectrum, reckoning separatist leaders.
"The killing of a @RisingKashmir editor, Shujaat Bukhari is an act of cowardice. It is an attempt to silence the saner voices of Kashmir. He was a courageous and fearless journalist. Extremely shocked & pained at his death. My thoughts and prayers are with his bereaved family," the home minister tweeted.
"It's very difficult to believe. He came to meet me just a few days ago," said Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti who visited the police hospital, where Bukhari's body was brought, to console his grief-stricken menage and seem close to tears herself.
Calling Bukhari "a voice of moderation and a courageous, big-hearted editor", the Editors' Guild said his killing "is a new low in a rapidly deteriorating environment for media practitioners in Kashmir, in particular, and in the country in general".
"An attack on a journalist challenges the very foundations of a free press and vibrant democracy and more so in a state like Jammu and Kashmir. The Guild calls upon the Centre to take essential steps to guarantee a situation where the media can discharge its duties without any fright of ferocity," its statement read.
Since an attack on Shujaat Bukhari in 2000, he was given a police protection, who was a part of the "Track II" or alternate channels dialogue process with Pakistan.
By Sowmya Sangam
