Last Updated: Friday, 14 October 2022, 13:56 GMT

India: Well-known newspaper editor gunned down in Kashmir

Publisher Reporters Without Borders
Publication Date 14 June 2018
Cite as Reporters Without Borders, India: Well-known newspaper editor gunned down in Kashmir, 14 June 2018, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/5b85053d3.html [accessed 16 October 2022]
DisclaimerThis is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States.

June 14, 2018

Reporters Without Borders (RSF) is appalled by leading Kashmiri journalist Shujaat Bukhari's murder on 14 June in Srinagar, in northern India's troubled state of Jammu and Kashmir, and urges the authorities to do everything possible to find his killers.

The editor of the well-known daily Rising Kashmir and one the region's most renowned journalists, Shujaat Bukhari was shot several times by unidentified gunmen as he was about to get into his car outside his office. The two police bodyguards escorting him were also hit by the shots and one died of his injuries.

Bukhari had been receiving police protection since 2000, when he was the target of an earlier attack.

"Shujaat Bukhari's brutal murder is a major blow for the Kashmiri media community and comes just as the United Nations is calling for an investigation into human rights abuses in Kashmir," RSF's Asia-Pacific desk said. "We urge the local and national authorities to shed all possible light on this horrific crime, which has silenced one of Kashmir's leading independent and moderate voices."

The precise motives for Bukhari's murder are not yet known but it came during a ceasefire for Ramadan that he had encouraged in his articles. In a tweet, Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Mehbooba Mufti blamed his murder on separatist "terrorism." No armed group has so far claimed responsibility for the shooting.

India is ranked 138th out of 180 countries in RSF's 2018 World Press Freedom Index, two places lower than last year.

Link to original story on RSF website

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