Syed Shujaat Bukhari one of troubled Kashmir’s enduring scribe known to hold his ground amidst pressures of reporting in a veritable conflict zone, was killed on Thursday outside his office. Two of his bodyguards died with him. Bukhari the editor of Rising Kashmir, cut his teeth with The Hindu was known to be a journalist with ‘spunk, courage and a keen sense of his calling.’ In a situation where taking a stand was potentially hazardous, Bukhari discharged his duty as a true journalist, never taking sides and always a peace broker. Writing in The Indian Express (June 15, 2018) Seema Chisti says, “ It was his bounden duty to jump fences between holders of different truths and come to his own conclusions.” That indeed is the true calling of a journalist – to listen to contesting voices and cull out what we believe to be the best version of truth. Bukhari, a widely travelled journalist is a voice trusted by international media houses and diplomats. As someone rightly remarked, ‘he liked being in many worlds at the same time.’ Deeply rooted to the Kashmir cause, Shujaat Bukhari welcomed the peace process at the risk of offending the radicals who believe in Azaad Kashmir. However, Bukhari also castigated the security forces for their acts of omission and commission and was vocal about it. An academic with stints in foreign universities, Shujaat Bukhari was more than a journalist. He was a man of many attributes. He started ‘Rising Kashmir’ ten years ago with the express purpose of making it a newspaper that stood firm in its journalistic principles. He gave it his all until the very end.
It must have been tough for Shujaat Bukhari to hold his own considering that his brother is a minister in the present PDP-BJP coalition government. But he spared no pains to rise above partisan politics. Bukhari used his twitter handle effectively to express the problems of Kashmir constantly until the very end. A great proponent of art and literature Bukhari pushed for a literature festival in 2011, much to the chagrin of his influential colleagues and fellow writers. While Bukhari welcomed the Ramzan ceasefire, he sensed that things were not going right and expressed this very vociferously at a conference in Delhi. Perhaps he had a premonition of what would happen. With the departure of yet another courageous journalist the world of journalism and free speech is poorer and ever more under threat today than ever before.
