Kashmir Press Club

25/02/2021

Kashmir Press Club in association with DataLeads/ Google News Initiative is organising a workshop on data journalism. For registration and other details call 98583 94209.

14/06/2020

Remembering Shuja'at Bukhari

BASHARAT RASHID

In the year 2016, I worked as an internship reporter in the Rising Kashmir, from South Kashmir parts, where i learned a lot of things, pertaining to Journalism. Before starting my six months internship, i directly contacted Late Shuja'at Bukhari Sir, who responded me very well and asked me to start work. Subsequently, i used to mail my news stories to his official mail & he used to check my stories daily before publishing them in The Rising Kashmir newspaper. Shuja'at sir was a dedicated person, who had down-to-earth attitude. Despite being a renowned senior journalist, Shuja'at was always kind, humble and exceptionally helpful to his subordinates. His death was a big loss to Journalism particularly in Kashmir valley. May Allah rest his soul in eternal peace.

14/06/2020

As we end the day let me confess “Remembering Shujaat” at Kashmir Press Club hasn’t been easy. Every write up received, read & published has brought back so many memories of him. His ever smiling face so clearly visible in the mind that it leaves you pained every single time. However while remembering him today we have tried to pay tributes to all the journalists who have lost their lives while working in challenging circumstances particularly in conflict zones like Kashmir. 19 journalists have been killed in Kashmir. We remember them all we feel for their families. May their souls rest in peace. Ameen.

Thank you all for being with us today.

Shuja ul haq
President,
Kashmir Press Club.

14/06/2020

Remembering Shujaat
Danish Bin Nabi

Dr. Syed Shujaat Bukhari will go down in Kashmir’s tumultuous history as a hero who bravely faced bullets. The word ‘Shujaat’ is derived from Arabic meaning ‘bravery’. And as his name suggests, he died like a brave soldier. Those who have murdered him have done a great disservice to Kashmir. What may have looked like a spring of water to Shujaat, was in fact a grove in the desert. He could not escape from the grove. 14 June was a regular day in Kashmir till tragedy struck at 7 pm when Shujaat was shot dead from point-black range along with his two bodyguards. Being a peacenik, he was always on the radar of the anti-peace forces on both sides of the fence but little did we imagine that he would be killed in such a brutal manner. No one deserves to die because they think differently. Does Shujaat deserved to be persecuted and killed because of his desire to put an end to the bloodbath in Kashmir through peaceful dialogue?

Popular for his fearless journalism, Shujaat was a voice to reckon with. In fact, he was a school of journalism unto himself, who helped propel journalism in Kashmir to new heights. Shujaat Bukhari was an inspiration for young and upcoming journalists. His analysis of issues – national and international – was unique. For me, editing his write-ups was a unique experience in itself.

There is no doubt that the killing of Bukhari has left a big void in the field of journalism in the Jammu and Kashmir but most importantly it has again led us to ponder where one is bound to question if Kashmiris will ever be left alone to live in peace and prosperity. Or, is it that like Bukhari, we all have our names written on a bullet waiting to hit us, somewhere, someday?

Dearest Shujaat you have left us to fend four ourselves and we never felt vulnerable like we do now.

Thank you, Shujaat for everything.

14/06/2020

Remembering Shujaat
By Iftikhar Gilani

Shujaat Bukhari: Man, with ideas and ideals:
When cross-LoC passenger bus service connecting Srinagar and Muzaffarabad was being flagged-off by then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on April 7, 2005, Shujaat Bukhari in his indomitable style rang up and recalled one of our conversation in New Delhi back in 1994.

Many people across the world from Ambassador McDonald to a host of think-tanks, peaceniks, backchannel and track II actors were claiming credit for floating the idea of the bus service and cross-LoC connectivity, which was perhaps the first and so far the only confidence-building measure (CBM) between India and Pakistan involving people of Jammu and Kashmir. Even though the issue of Jammu and Kashmir had been center of the dispute between the two countries, but all the CBMs enacted over the past 70 years be that security or trade issues, excluded the region.

Way back in 1994, he recalled our private conversation about the idea. In 1978 assembly elections, the National Conference (NC) under Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah had made it an election plank in North Kashmir. Sheikh’s deputy Mirza Mohammad Afzal Beg in various public gatherings after finishing his speech was symbolically showing a green handkerchief and rock salt to people to press the point that once back to power, they will reopen historical and traditional linkages to Kashmir. The region which was once a connecting link had been pushed to the periphery by the events that overtook the region in the 20th century. The animosity between India and Pakistan further vitiated it.

The bespectacled man with a warm smile and generous manners, Shujaat took up the idea and discussed with the then political counselor at the US Embassy in Delhi. Just a day later, he told me that Americans have shown an interest in the idea and the lady counselor Elizabeth (I remember only her first name) wanted him to meet Frank G. Wisner, who had taken over as the Ambassador almost a year later after Thomas R. Pickering had completed his tenure. He wanted me to accompany him to press this point further and to explain it in a historical perspective.

In 2015, Shujaat was only recalling that unlike others we had not put the proposal in any written format. The man who tried all his career to build bridges, restore peace with dignity, and find ways to move towards resolution was the author and proponent of this biggest CBM.

Whenever I was in Srinagar he would lend me his spare mobile phone. Delhi phones were not working in Kashmir and it was not the place to feel cut off and out of contact.
A voice of reason and hope and a brilliant reporter, who had contacts all around in both India and Pakistan had never stopped looking on the future for Kashmir with optimism.

He tried hard to bridge the gaps, and always dreamt of keeping hopes alive by encouraging Srinagar-Delhi-Islamabad dialogue. At all track II or private meetings, I remember, he would always valiantly put forward Kashmir centric point, which would at times irritate many in Delhi. He was critical of the establishment that would always loathe people who talk with the sense of independence and impartiality that was so refreshing for all dealing with Kashmir.

Who gained from this death? It is a question haunting all of us. Soon after his departure, the door that Shujaat Bukhari tried so hard to keep open for the sake of the future he believed in was slammed shut.

Bukhari’s murder is a tragedy not only for his family but for all of us in Kashmir and outside. It is also a tragedy for press freedom and peacebuilding. Without a political solution with people at the center, conflict in the region will inevitably continue, and on-the-ground reporting will be compromised. In his last column, Shujaat wrote: “Local support to militancy has increased. Unless a political approach is adopted by the government, violence will continue to make headlines. And with provocations from the government in Delhi which are further supplemented by TV channels, there is hardly any chance and hope to see a change.”

Rest in peace, my friend. It is not easy to live a life without you. Still at times, when I get stuck on some issue, I tend to dial his number, which I have still stored in my phone. I
do not dare to delete it.

14/06/2020

Remembering shujaat
Sardar Nasir Ali Khan

Shujaat Sir was a guiding light for so many people and I was so fortunate that I got to learn from him . He was always just a call away and encouraged me everytime we met . Shujaat bhai we miss you .

14/06/2020

Remembering Shujaat : Ahmed Ali Fayyaz.
Shujaat Bukhari—an unforgettable friend and colleague
________

Writing about the life and death of a colleague and friend of 30 long years and paying tributes to him in 200 words is not easy. But thanks to Twitter, we have been a little disciplined to brevity. Shujaat Bukhari and I began cutting our teeth together in journalism from the days of Jauhar Qudoosi’s Takbeer-e-Nav in 1988-89 and Saleem Pandit’s ‘Submission’ in 1990-91. We grew up together, worked, travelled, made friends and enemies till his life was snuffed out this day in June 2018 by the gunmen whose description and identification needs a new era of the journalism of courage.

With a repertoire of investigative journalism for decades and after watching investigations into murder cases in hundreds, I honestly believe Shujaat’s assassination was not investigated with total competence, will and professionalism. Perhaps it couldn’t have been by the investigating officers and prosecutors vulnerable to apprehensions and threats of similar fate. I don’t believe even the judges who live in morbid fears, walk and drive to their families in the valley interiors without a sense of security would ever deliver justice in such trials. So, for long, we will have to be content with paying tributes to our snatched away colleagues and cursing the “unidentified gunmen”. It doesn’t disturb anybody as nobody has ever owned up such killings in Kashmir since 1990. And the window remains open for the next assassination.


Shujaat and I worked together in Kashmir Times and one after another in The Hindu. But our relationships were not essentially professional. We were like members of one family. Unmatched in public relations and liaison with very important people, it was he who introduced me to Rashtriya Sahara and requested then top IAS officer Mehmoor-ur-Rehman to allot me a room in MLAs Hostel, Srinagar, in the worst of my times. We were not in talking terms when my father passed away in 2005. I remember him calling me from Chennai, cutting his visit short and next day reaching straight my home in Budgam.


In the last many years, our views on a host of issues and subjects varied and we were not on the shared paths. For years, I did poetry and short story writing in Kashmiri. I did honours and PG in Kashmiri language and literature. Contrarily, Shujaat had no academic exposure to Kashmiri language, literature and culture. Yet he did what I couldn’t ever. He launched his own weekly ‘Sangarmal’ in Kashmiri and came out with remarkable contribution in his capacity as the chair of Adabi Markaz Kamraz for over a decade.

Parallel to his journalism I was much impressed by his sustained work for the Kashmiri language, literature and culture. But I never liked the idea of losing a great journalist friend to extracurricular activism and so-called Track-2 Diplomacy. Yet it never came between our personal and family relationships as we had very strong mutual love and respect for each other. Months before his assassination, we were together but on different programmes in the US. Shujaat had visited The Newseum, a rich gallery of the history of news journalism, in Washington DC. On a different date, I too had an opportunity to visit.


We were thrilled to find in a long list names of at least five of the Kashmiri journalists who had fallen to bombs and bullets of the “unidentified gunman”. We had no idea who of us would be the next. It was none other than Shujaat! I saw even those shedding tears who had painted many of us as “collaborators” with insidious whisper campaigns and loose talks and blogs and thus built up an atmosphere of mistrust and made the assassin’s job easy. I wish Shujaat’s parents, brother, sister, wife, son, daughter and other relatives, colleagues and friends all the fortitude to withstand the trauma of his memories and tragic assassination.

14/06/2020

Remembering Shujaat.
Gowhar Geelani

“THE devastating news came first in worried whispers, and then in an official confirmation: Syed Shujaat Bukhari had been assassinated. On TV, journalist Nazir Masoodi said in a choked voice, “[The] editor-in-chief of the English daily Rising Kashmir has been killed by unidentified gunmen […] just outside his office in the Press Enclave in the heart of Srinagar at around 7:20pm (IST) […].”

Aaj ek aur baras beet gaya uske baghair

Two years have passed by. And his smile is being missed dearly by his friends, colleagues and acquaintances alike.

Professionally, I had known the slain editor for 14 years. The last time I spoke to him was on his birthday. Bukhari, 50 years old at the time of his death, was a widely travelled, full-of-life journalist. He is survived by his wife, Dr Tehmeena, and two children. Tamheed, his son, often writes about his father’s passion and mission.

In the profession, Shujaat was my senior by over a decade, having cut his teeth as a reporter for the Jammu-based English daily Kashmir Times in the early 1990s. Later, he worked as a special correspondent for the Chennai-based The Hindu for over a decade. For about two years we worked together for Deutsche Welle (Voice of Germany) as foreign contributors from Srinagar, before he started his own newspaper Rising Kashmir in 2008. Bukhari was also a promoter of his mother tongue, and one of the important cogs in the wheels of north Kashmir’s literary organisation Adbee Markaz Kamraz. Additionally, he was editor of the daily Buland Kashmir and weekly Parcham in Urdu, and Sangarmal in Kashmiri.

With a perennial smile on his face, Bukhari had not let the child in him die. Charisma and humour were his hallmarks, and his strong networking skills and affable personality ensured that his circle kept growing. Though easily hurt, he was often the first to initiate reconciliation. Even when he would disagree on several issues, but he was never impolite and kept light-hearted one-liners handy.

There are multiple narratives in relation to his assassination two years ago.

Since 1989, journalists in Kashmir have often found themselves to be sitting ducks for both state and non-state actors. The attack on Bukhari was an attack on free speech, free thinking and also an assault on an idea.”

14/06/2020

14/06/2020

Remembering Shujaat.
Yusuf Jameel

Shujaat Bukhari: A marvellous star who will continue to inspire aspiring journalists

Getting a government job is not easy. But Shujaat Bukhari who had had great chances of occupying influential leadership position in the Accounts General Office where he had launched his career after completing his studies in early 1990s gave up his job for his intense craving for writing and reporting for the media. His success as an amateur writer had encouraged him to try his luck in journalism which, he told me, he had aspired while still a school boy. I found in him a serious beginner. He soon proved his impressive skills and, in fact, while being at Kashmir Times and later as a correspondent with The Hindu, left many of us already in the profession somewhat falling behind.

One would find him very energetic, charming, thrilling and persuasive whenever we would sit or travel together. Soon we discovered that our promising colleague is an ambitious person who wants to fly high. He possessed enough talent to do it and was ready to give up everything that could weigh him down. His friends circle expanded with each passing day but he also won many foes in his endeavour to achieve.

Even though his priorities changed, we remained good friends. His humane and friendly traits did not fade with the passage of time.

His gruesome murder rekindled apprehensions and even instilled fear in many in Kashmir's journalism fraternity which has been working on the razor's edge in past three decades. But it also added up to our daggers to stand and fight for the truth. As a marvellous star of this profession, Shujaat will continue to inspire many, many aspiring journalists in future.