A story of courage under fire

   For long years, for any journalist, national or international, trying to understand the complex issues involved in understanding and reporting on Kashmir, a briefing by the Editor of Rising Kashmir , and prior to that The Hindu’s J&K Correspondent, Shujaat Bukhari was a must.

And so it was for me in the late 1990s and early years of this century when reporting for this paper on the Indo-Pak conflict, I made several visits to the Valley and Pakistan. Soon he became a friend and a delicious Kashmiri meal at his house was a bonus added to a lucid update on the politics of J&K. He was a big help in getting appointments with the Chief Minister, Opposition leaders, bureaucrats, academics and the Hurriyat leaders. For what value does a Kashmir story have without input, however vituperative, from the Hurriyat? Often he would accompany me to these interviews and sometimes during late evenings as we walked along deserted streets, with me having to literally trot to keep up with his lengthy stride, I really admired his courage. Not only for reporting from “the most dangerous place in the world”, but for the sheer guts he displayed in his fearless and independent reporting, which included all sides of the story.

Doing that from a Kashmir which has lived under the shadow of violence perpetrated by every stakeholder — terrorists, militants, police and even the armed forces — was risky as hell. But Bukhari always brushed aside the numerous threats he was receiving… he was once abducted and there were several attempts on his life. Finally, on the eve of Eid he fell to the several bullets fired on him at close range just outside his office in the heavily guarded Press Enclave in Srinagar.

Journalists at risk

Bukhari’s ghastly murder — he was only 50 — once again brings to the fore the dangers faced by journalists who report from conflict and war zones. Tragically, Kashmir, the bone of contention between India and Pakistan for 70 years, is moving into a deeper and darker hole of violence, bloodshed and terrorism. And over long years, both the Central and the State governments have only bungled in finding the right solution, as the citizens in the Valley get more alienated and lose all hope of living in peace.

Shooting the messenger is becoming the norm across the world; and where a journalist’s quest is to report the truth, which is invariably hidden under multiple layers of lies, propaganda, jingoism, arrogance and unadulterated hatred for those who do not toe a particular view, he/she is at great risk.

Walking a tightrope

All his friends and colleagues knew the kind of tightrope walking that Bukhari did, much more during his later avatar as the founder and Editor of Rising Kashmir , and its Urdu and Kashmiri sister publications he started.

It was one thing to make Anna Salai (the road on which The Hindu group’s office is located) in Chennai understand the “importance of the developments in downtown Baramullah”, as he humourously said in an interview, but quite another to run a newspaper chain in Kashmir as its Editor. Whatever you do, say or write, you will make enemies. Period.

Unfortunately in our country, pseudo-nationalists have often cursed the Kashmiri Muslim. Look at what they did to the Kashmiri Pandits is the perennial chant.

For how long will every Kashmiri Muslim be vilified for the forced exit of the Pandits from the Valley, without analysing the whole narrative of the involvement of Pakistan and militants backed by it, is the moot question.

And then of course those mourning/condemning Bukhari’s death were trolled for not condemning enough the killing of our jawans or army officers by the terrorist or Pakistan army.

Yes, Aurangazeb, the Army rifleman was cruelly abducted and killed by terrorists as he was proceeding home for Eid, and his anguished father rightly asked why the Pakistan flag was being raised in Kashmir.

Of course that deserves condemnation which it has got, as the killing of other armymen on the J&K border. But what logic says that unless you shout from the rooftops condemning one, you cannot condemn the other?

It was heartbreaking to see, even after his dastardly murder, trolls on social media attacking Bukhari on various counts. A few hours before he died, responding to a heckler he had tweeted: “In #Kashmir we have done Journalism with pride and will continue to highlight what happens on (the) ground.”

Alas, his voice has been silenced.