Politicians, separatists condemn editor’s killing; scribes numbed
Bukhari, editor of Rising Kashmir, and his two personal security officers of J&K Police, were shot dead in Srinagar
: The assassination of senior scribe Shujaat Bukhari in Srinagar on Thursday cast a pall of gloom over the Eid festivities in Jammu and Kashmir, ending the month-long Ramzan on a tragic note.
It evoked a wave of condemnation from both mainstream politicians and Kashmir separatists and left the journalists in the troubled state shell-shocked.
Bukhari, editor of Rising Kashmir, a daily published from Srinagar, and his two personal security officers of J&K Police, were shot dead in the heart of Srinagar.
J&K chief minister Mehbooba Mufti was all aghast and was among the first to visit the hospital where Bukhari was declared brought dead.
She blamed the killing on terrorism. “Terrorism has hit a new low with Shujaat’s killing. That too on the eve of Eid. We must unite against forces seeking to undermine our attempts to restore peace. Justice will be done,” she said
In Delhi, Union minister Rajnath Singh and Congress president Rahul Gandhi joined the chorus of condemnation of leading J&K political figures including deputy chief minister Kavinder Sharma , veteran national conference leader Farooq Abdullah, former CM Omar Abdullah and senior Peoples’ Democratic Party leader Muzaffar Beig. “Today, we lost editor of Rising Kashmir to menace of terrorism. This barbarism is alien and antithetical to the spirit of Kashmir.We denounce this cowardly act”, the ruling PDP said.
Hardline separatist leader Syed Ali Geelani condemned the killing, saying it is against the moral and human ethics to kill a person without any justification. “Difference of opinion is no way a crime to kill a person” said the Hurriyat leader.
Moderate separatist leader and chief cleric of Kashmir Mirwaiz Umar Farooq took to the Twitter calling the killing “unpardonable and condemnable in the strongest terms”. Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front chairman Yasin Malik termed the attack as barbaric, gruesome and direct assault on freedom of speech and expression.
The targeted killing of Shujaat shocked the journalists working at ‘Rising Kashmir’. “We are devastated and are too overwhelmed by grief to react” said a staffer wishing anonymity.
The Srinagar-based scribes took to social media to pour out their grief and condemnation.