Who ordered the hit on Shujaat Bukhari?

Zafar Meraj
A J&K-based senior journalist 

IN Shujaat Bukhari’s shocking murder, Kashmir has not only lost a fearless journalist, but also a strong votary of peace. His death, at a time when there was a strong sentiment to restore normalcy in strife-torn Kashmir, is bound to hit the peace process. 

Starting his career in the mid-nineties, Shujaat soon earned a place as a capable professional; his Rising Kashmir presented developments in the state in a manner both objective and fearless. In the face of unabated violence in Kashmir, and innocent Kashmiris caught on both sides of the firing line, Shujaat raised his voice against the atrocities and the mayhem caused by the unrestricted use of the gun. Wholeheartedly, he joined the bandwagon of peace mongers, on this side of the border, and the other. He soon became an active and a dynamic part of the efforts aimed at the restoration of peace. 

The chain of events was not wholly unexpected. A conference held in Dubai last year was the first to send alarm signals for Shujaat and team. The conference, attended by many people, including senior separatists from across the LoC, also saw the participation of some people from India, who sat across the table with representatives of Kashmiri separatist groups based in “Azad Kashmir” and Pakistan. The conference, the first of its kind after more than a decade, called for cessation of violence that would lead to a peaceful resolution of the Kashmir dispute. What followed was on expected lines. The deliberations raised controversies, with major separatist groups based in Pakistan taking strong exception. The Hizbul Mujahideen and the Lashkar-e-Taiba were in the forefront of the criticism of the conference. This was followed by a virtual campaign on social media by various groups and individuals against the participants, with Shujaat topping the list of “collaborators”. 

Ershad Mehmood, a political activist and one of the participants of the Dubai conference, in a recent post on social media claimed that Hizb supremo Salahuddin termed the participants as “paid agents of India” and the next day, a spokesman for Lashkar, while calling them “traitors”, threatened to “teach them a lesson”. Ershad makes another revelation: Shujaat “forcefully” pleaded for the inclusion of Hizb and other Hurriyat leaders in the dialogue process, as without them a resolution to the Kashmir problem would be transitory. 

Worried about the fallout over his peace efforts, and even before the Dubai conference, Shujaat had confided in Ershaad: “I have been warned by official sources that the order to hit me has been issued. Please talk to Peer saheb (Syed Salahuddin) about it.” With some difficulty, Ershaad claims, he managed to meet Salahuddin and sought his help. He got an assurance that he was too big to order the killing of journalists. “This is all propaganda,” Ershaad was told. 

However, over the past few months, there was a relentless campaign against Shujaat on social media, accusing him of working at the behest of Indian agencies. “Shujaat was asking me to talk to government agencies in Pakistan, saying that some people were conspiring against him. Even on the day he was killed, he sent me a message, wanting a Facebook ID checked. I told him to send the details and that I would get it done after the Eid holidays.” 

But that was not to be. 

The circumstances leading to his murder are confounding. It was the day when the UN Human Rights Council released a damning report on Kashmir, accusing New Delhi of resorting to excessive use of power in dealing with Kashmir and committing atrocities. Shujaat was the first to comment on the report on Twitter. (A few days earlier, he had condemned the gory incident of a youth being crushed to death by a security vehicle.) While announcing the BJP pullout from its alliance with the PDP, leading to Governor’s rule in the state, party general secretary Ram Madhav mentioned Shujaat’s murder as one of the reasons for withdrawal of support to Mehbooba Mufti. 

“Bukhari’s case falls into that rare category where the precise determination of the killer as well as the motive can only be guessed vaguely, not determined with certainty,” says veteran Kashmiri journalist and political analyst, Mohammad Syed Malik. “To an extent, it bears similarity with the mysterious killing of Mirwaiz Maulvi Farooq and Abdul Ghani Lone.” 

Shujaat was not unaware that the path he had chosen as a peace activist was full of hazards, even a death trap. He took in his stride the serious threats to his life, not giving up till his last. 

Another voice for peace is stilled.