Rising Kashmir editor Shujaat Bukhari was today laid to rest in his ancestral village with thousands of friends and admirers braving heavy rain to mourn a veteran journalist, who had championed peace in times of conflict and may have been killed for it.
As preparations were under way for the funeral procession of the journalist, shot dead two days ahead of Eid outside his office in Srinagar with two of his PSOs, readers of the Rising Kashmir woke up to a paper with its front page carrying a full-page black and white photograph of its editor-in-chief against a black background.
The Rising Kashmir, which hit the stands as usual, also carried the message that it would not be cowed by cowards who had snatched him from them.
You left all too sudden but you will always be our leading light with your professional conviction and exemplary courage. We won't be cowed down by the cowards who snatched you from us. We will uphold your principle of telling the truth howsoever unpleasant it may be...Rest in peace! the paper said.
The message found wide echo as crowds of tearful mourners from across the Valley followed the cortege through the streets of this sleepy hamlet in Baramulla district, a short distance from Srinagar.
Among those who took part in the last rites of Bukhari and visited his ancestral home to condole with the family were opposition leader Omar Abdullah and ministers from the PDP and the BJP.
It was probably the biggest funeral procession the village had seen, observers said.
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There was a traffic jam in the area as the crowds of mourners swelled.
Bukhari, 50, was gunned down yesterday evening soon after he got into his car from his office at Press Enclave in the city centre, Lal Chowk.
The killing of the journalist, on his way to an iftar party, and that of an army jawan going home for Eid comes just before the Centre's Ramzan ceasefire ends, triggering debate on whether the Centre should resume operations against the militants.
As outrage grew over the audacious killing during the holy month of Ramzan, police today sought help of the public in identifying the suspects.
The police issued a screen grab from a video, recorded by a passerby following the attack, showing a bearded man surveying the inside the journalist's vehicle.
Late last night, the police hadreleased two pictures of three bike-borne men, who were caught on a CCTV camera and are suspected to have killed Bukhari.
Bukhari, who is survived by his wife and two children, was instrumental in organising several conferences for peace in the Kashmir Valley. He was also part of the Track II process with Pakistan.
According to Omar Abdullah, the Rising Kashmir had published a fitting tribute to its editor.
The show must go on. As Shujaat would have wanted it to," the former chief minister wrote on Twitter while sharing a picture of the front page of the paper.
Expressing extreme sadness at Bukhari's death, BSP chief Mayawati said the time had come for the Narendra Modi government to "shun its stubborn attitude and immediately review its Kashmir policy in the interest of the country".
N Ram, the chairperson of The Hindu group, where Bukhari worked between 1997 and 2012, said the late journalist was not a government man, he was not an establishment man, nor was he in sympathy with the extremist elements.
"He believed, I think, he was voice for a just solution however difficult that is going to be in Jammu and Kashmir," Ram told NDTV in an interview.
The noted editor said the killing had come as a shock because it was believed that journalists will not be killed in Jammu and Kashmir.
"There have been such cases in the past but not many. You have to go back 15 years before you could recollect that a journalist was killed," he said.
Bukhari is the fourth journalist to be killed by militants in the nearly three-decade violence in Kashmir.
In 1991, the editor of Alsafa, Mohammed Shaban Vakil, was killed by militants of the Hizbul Mujahideen.
Four years later, in 1995, former BBC correspondent Yussuf Jameel escaped with injuries when a bomb exploded in his office. ANI cameramen Mushtaq Ali lost his life in the incident.
In 2003, Parvaz Mohammed Sultan, editor of NAFA, was shot dead by Hizbul Mujahideen at his Press Enclave office.