Conspiracy to kill Bukhari hatched in Pak, say police

Three Lashkar militants carried out Eideve attack

There is tangible evidence to establish that the conspiracy to kill journalist Shujaat Bukhari was hatched by Lashker-e-Taiba (LeT) in Pakistan and three cadres of the banned outfit including Naveed Jatt had executed the plan, a top police official said here on Thursday.

Inspector General of Police Kashmir SP Pani said while a Srinagar resident based in Pakistan had started an online campaign against the slain journalist, three Lashkar militants — Jatt, Muzaffar Ahmad and Azad Malik carried out the killing.

“There were rumours about the accused persons in the public domain after the incident. There were pictures of the three suspects that were released.

“Now we have got evidence to confirm the identity of these three individuals as Azad Malik, Muzaffar Ahmad (both residents of south Kashmir) and Naveed Jatt. These three are now wanted by law,” he said.

Identifying the fourth accused as Sajad Gul, who fled India on a passport in March last year, Pani said the investigation team will follow the due course of law to bring them to book. There was a series of social media campaign

in which online platforms were used which were intimidating at times, he said, adding five to six posts came. “Apart from that there was a facebook (page) and a twitter handle @ahmadkhalid. The investigation has revealed and we have tangible evidence that these were done from Pakistan,” Pani said. “The location

provided by the service providers show that these belong to Pakistan and they are part of the LeT conspiracy,” he added. Pani said Gul had earlier been arrested by Delhi police in 2003 and later by Srinagar police in 2016 for other terror related cases but managed to “fraudulently” obtain a passport and flee the country.