PATRIOT DESK
SRINAGAR: On World Press Freedom Day Journalist fraternity recounts their ordeal while discharging their professional duties in the trouble torn Kashmir valley. Scores of veteran and senior journalist draw light on problems faced by the media men in Kashmir who according them are working on razor edge every day as compared to the journalist working in the rest of the country and world.
The challenges of media gag, banning newspapers, attacks from mainstream and separatists were highlighted during the program held to observe world press freedom Day. The journalists draw light on working of journalists caught in cross fire between the establishment and people.
Bilal Furqani, a journalists said that besides curbs, many of their colleagues are jailed, blinded and censored which indicates the challenges of a Journalists working in place like Kashmir.
Meanwhile the contribution of press in Jammu and Kashmir who inspite of pulls and pressures let the truth prevail was also hailed, however many say that almost everyone in Kashmir has been affected by the conflict that raged, directly or indirectly. Adding that the list of the ‘messengers’ is also not a short one. The scribes said nineties was a tough time, and Journalism in Kashmir had become a profession of daredevils. They added death threats, bomb explosions, attacks on family members, threatening phone calls had become a daily routine.
Senior Journalist Reyaz Malik told that the job to report things happening around them had put the lives of journalists at risk, and continues to do so today.
Worth to mention that there are 19 journalists so far who were killed in Kashmir turbulence in the line of duty, besides scores of them were attacked in the filed by either side. Beside the recent case of Rising Kashmir Editor Shujaat Bukhari was shot and killed outside his office in the Press Avenue in Srinagar by unknown gunmen, there are several others who paid the price for their pen. On World Press Freedom Day, the media fraternity also remembered the slain editor Rising Kashmir and senior journalist, Shuja’at Bukhari and 18 media professionals who lost their lives in Kashmir during last 30 years. They pledge that their honest work and sacrifices will continue to inspire many journalists in Kashmir for years to come.
LIST OF JOURNALISTS KILLED IN KASHMIR
- On February 19, 1990, Lassa Kaul, director of the government-owned Doordarshan television station, was shot dead by militants in Bemina area of Srinagar. The killing prompted the station’s closure for a three-year period.
- On March 1 1990, P N. Handoo, Assistant Director of Information was shot dead inside his office at Balgarden, Srinagar.
- On April, 23, 1991, murder of Al-Safa editor in chief Mohammad Shaban Wakil served to mute local journalists’ criticism of Kashmiri militants, whom many suspect killed him. According to reports, some gun-wielding men entered the office of Vakil and fired at him indiscriminately.
- September 29, 1992, a renowned calligrapher, Ali Mohammad Mahajan, working with Urdu newspapers Hamadard and the Daily Aftab, was killed by paramilitary forces along with his son, Aijaz.
- October 16, 1992, Syed Ghulam Nabi, Joint Director Information, was kidnapped and held captive for four days. On October 20, his dead body found with torture marks.
- October 3, 1993 slaying of Radio Kashmir news reader Mohammad Shafi Bhat sparked a wave of resignations by his colleagues.
- August 29, 1994 murder of freelance journalist Ghulam Mohammed Lone, had a chilling effect on stringers working in outlying areas of the Kashmir Valley. He was killed by a group of masked gunmen who also fatally shot his seven-year-old son in their home in Kangan, Kashmir.
- On September 10, 1995, Mushtaq Ali, an Agence France-Presse and Asian News International photographer, opened a package at an office in Srinagar’s Press Enclave. The “parcel exploded, severing Ali’s left hand, disfiguring his face and severely injuring his right hand and abdomen”. He died three days later.
- On April 10, 1996, Ghulam Rasool Sheikh, editor of the Urdu-language daily Rehnuma-e-Kashmir and the English-language weekly Saffron Times, was found dead floating in Kashmir’s Jhelum River. Family members alleged that Sheikh was abducted and then killed by a paramilitary group.
- On January 1, 1997 an anchor for the state-owned Doordarshan television station in Srinagar, Altaf Ahmed Faktoo, was shot dead by militants.
- On March 16, 1997 the same year a freelance journalist Saidan Shafi was shot dead along with his bodyguard in Srinagar. Shafi, a reporter for Doordarshan TV, the official Indian television network, for “Kashmir File,” a weekly news program, and “Eyewitness”, a five-minute nightly news capsule, was fatally shot in an ambush by two gunmen in Srinagar.
- April 8, 1997, Tariq Ahmad, a private television producer was killed.
- On August 10, 2000 a grenade attack at Residency Road in Srinagar brought a hive of journalists to cover the spot. Moments later a car parked in a lane exploded in which a Hindustan Times photojournalist, Pradeep Bhatia, was killed.
- Parvaz Muhammad Sultan, editor of a local news agency, was killed by unidentified gunmen in 2003. Sultan was the editor of an independent news-wire service, News and Feature Alliance (NAFA), based in Srinagar, was shot dead by an unidentified gunman.
- Senior reporter of region’s information department Abdul Majid Bhat was killed in a blast in Doda town, in Jammu, on May 9, 2004.
- Another scribe Asiya Jeelani was killed in a landmine blast in Kupwara on April 20, 2004. Jeelani was a freelance journalist who contributed to local newspapers, and a human rights activist who worked with a human rights group, Coalition of Civil Society (JKCCS). The blast also killed the driver of the vehicle.
- Ashok Sodhi, a photojournalist and then chief cameraman of Daily Excelsior, was killed on May 11, 2008 in Samba district of Jammu. Sodhi was caught in a crossfire close to India’s border with Pakistan.
- On 13th August, 2008, Javed Ahmed Mir, 35, was shot dead while covering a demonstration near Bagh-e-Mehtab. According to the BBC, apart from being a cameraman, was also a textile worker, to help support his wife and three children. Reporters Without Borders urged the government to carry out a thorough investigation into the death of local TV cameraman.
- On June 14, Rising Kashmir Editor Shujaat Bukhari was shot and killed outside his office in the Press Avenue in Srinagar. Unknown gunmen fired a volley of bullets on his car. Bukhari was shot multiple times in his head and abdomen. (Data input : FPK)
