Kashmiri media worried after Bukhari killed
Police said initial probe has revealed ISI was involved in Shujaat Bukhari’s killing to derail the Centre’s peace process.
The gruesome murder of prominent Kashmiri journalist Shujaat Bukhari, outside his Press Enclave office in the heart of Srinagar, has left the media fraternity in the valley fretting about their safety. Questions are also being raised about the continuity of the peace process in Kashmir after the fatal attack on Bukhari, who was apparently a part of Track II diplomacy with Pakistan.
Bukhari was a strong advocate of the peace process. The CCTV footages from around Press Enclave have shown three young boys on a motorcycle fleeing the spot. The police said that the initial leads suggest the ISI and other Pakistani agencies were involved in the journalist’s killing. Bukhari, editor-in- chief of well-read local English daily, Rising Kashmir, and his two personal security officers were shot multiple times when they entered their car, about to head home on Thursday evening, minutes before iftar. Bukhari died on the spot, invoking heartfelt condemnation of the incident from Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti, who visited the bereaved family; state opposition leaders, national leaders, media persons in India and abroad, and the intelligentsia. His funeral took place on Friday in his native village Kreeri, amid a sea of mourners.
Bukhari’s murder follows the killing of two Pulwama based policemen and Army jawan Aurangzeb in Shopian at the hands of terrorists. Although the public mood is in favour of the continuation of the Ramzan ceasefire, the chain of fatal attacks, at a time when the Centre is preparing ground for the dialogue process, is being seen as a desperate attempt on part of the terrorists to derail the peace process. It is after 2008 that any journalist in Kashmir has been killed in a terrorist attack. In all the previous cases of attacks on journalists in Kashmir, police closed the probe blaming terrorists. In view of a steep increase in terrorist activities across the state, the security forces have held a series of meetings with intelligence agencies to ensure fool-proof safety and security to the upcoming Amarnath Yatra, an annual sojourn of Hindu pilgrims to the holy Amarnath cave, situated at an altitude of 3,888 metre above sea level and about 141 km from here.
A senior CRPF officer sounded cautious when he said that providing security to the Yatra is a big challenge as it passes through several districts of terror-infested South Kashmir. This year, the Yatra will begin on 28 June from the base camps in Pahalgam. Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) Inspector General for Srinagar sector, Ravideep Singh Sahi said that they have put in place advance arrangements for the Yatra and induction of more forces has started in Kashmir valley. He said that this year, 215 companies of paramilitary forces would be deployed in the twin routes of Baltal and Pahalgam. The recent grenade attacks and IED blasts have prompted the forces to sanitise the entire Yatra corridor which passes through the valley, he added.
A senior police officer told this newspaper that about 3,500 additional Central Armed Police Force (CAPF) jawans and at least 35 companies of JKAP and IRP would be deployed for the smooth conduct of the Yatra. Nearly 25,000 men-in-uniform will spread across the entire Yatra route to ensure its safe and peaceful passage. With 35 infiltrators killed in different gunfights in Jammu and Kashmir during Ramzan ceasefire, there is a spike in the terror-related violence in the state, but the nationwide outrage over the abduction and brutal killing of Rashtriya Rifles jawan Aurangzeb in captivity, along with disturbing feedback from the ground, is certain to force to the government’s hand to allow the ceasefire to lapse.
“The ceasefire was only for the month of Ramzan. Security forces will resume their operations immediately after Eid,” a senior security officer told the media here.
Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti has been pleading for an extension of the ceasefire by two more months and some more confidencebuilding measures so that a dialogue process can start with Hurriyat. Reports said that Centre’s interlocutor Dineshwar Sharma is likely to work on the threads after Eid to open dialogue with the Hurriyat, led by separatist leader Syed Ali Shah