Six major press organisations Monday held a joint remembrance meet in the premises of Pres Club of India here for Shujaat Bukhari and demanded a probe into the veteran journalist’s assassination.
The joint solidarity meet was attended by the Press Club of India, Editors Guild of India, South Asia Women in Media, South Asian Free Media Association, Indian Journalists Union and IWPCA.
Editor-in-Chief of English-language daily Rising Kashmir, Shujaat Bukhari was shot dead along with his two police bodyguards outside his office on June 14.
The participant organisations observed a two-minute silence in remembrance of Shujaat, and issued a joint statement and resolution demanding that government of Jammu and Kashmir bring the perpetrators of the crime to book at the earliest.
It also demanded the government institute a separate inquiry into those who had launched a malicious campaign against the slain journalist.
“Tragically Kashmir has witnessed yet another murder,” said Sheela Bhatt, General Secretary of Editors Guild of India while addressing a gathering of about 300 journalists.
“We have deep sympathy for his family and his colleagues. Government and investigation agencies must investigate his killing thoroughly.”
GautamLahiri, president PCI said the government of India has ignored a demand for including data about killing of journalists in the National Crime Bureau.
“But that has not happened so far. We demand an intense probe of Shujaat’s murder,” Lahiri said.
“Since last few years the situation in Kashmir has become terrible for journalists,” Amit Baruah, a senior Editor at The Hindu, said.
“This is a sad moment for all of us. The tragedy of Kashmir and Shujaat’s assassination has a link and whoever carried out his killing, he wanted to send a message that there could be attack at the heart of the city.”
Shujjat reported Kashmir for the Hindu from 1997 to 2012 and was a contributor for the fortnightly magazine, Frontline.
“Attack on Shujaat is a part of a kind of pressure that journalist in Jammu and Kashmir face every day,” said SiddharthVaradarajan, founder editor of The Wire and Shujaat’s former colleague at the Hindu.
“What happened to him is an extreme.”