Days before, Shujaat had asked CM for more security: Dulat

London, June 18

Senior journalist Shujaat Bukhari, who was shot dead in Srinagar last week, had approached Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti only a few days ago with a request to increase his security, former special director of the Intelligence Bureau, AS Dulat, said on Monday.

Bukhari, the editor-in-chief of the daily ‘Rising Kashmir’, was shot dead outside his office in Srinagar on June 14. “He (Bukhari) had warned repeatedly of alienation, increased militancy and an all-pervasive atmosphere of fear in which no one was safe,” Dulat, who arrived here last week, said in a statement.

“Bukhari had approached the Chief Minister only a few days ago for increasing his security. Yet who could have imagined that this gentle soul will become a target. Why?” Dulat asked.

“We had met in Istanbul about six weeks ago from where he travelled to Pakistan. Despite travelling for more than a fortnight, he came from Srinagar to Delhi for the launch of my book on May 23. As usual, he spoke fearlessly about his beloved Valley which he saw sinking in the past couple of years,” the former intelligence chief said.

Bukhari was the most committed votary of dialogue being the only way out, he said. “He was a gem of a human being and a friend; possibly the brightest journalist in the Valley with a great future,” Dulat added.