Shujaat Bukhari ; A voice silenced

It turned a black Thursday in the history of Kashmir when while in the evening hours Senior Journalist and Rising Kashmir Editor-in-Chief Shujaat Bukhari was shot dead in Srinagar by unidentified assailants. His two personal security officers were also killed. A targeted attack. And, alas, not the first time a leading Kashmiri journalist has been subject to such outrage.
Shujaat Bukhari was a proud Kashmiri, a champion of its language and culture, and someone who sought dialogue over slogans and violence. His independence of mind has cost him his life. Kashmir is a conflict which consumes the best of its people.
Shujaat built round him a young and talented team – he was proud that women were prominent among them – who shared his vision of a vigorous, inquisitive and non-partisan press which held to account not only the government but separatists too.
Earlier, he had been the Srinagar correspondent for one of India’s liberal daily papers, The Hindu, and pulled off that difficult task of informing India’s opinion makers about a corner of their country they sometimes seem determined to forget.
Shujaat himself was a big man, bespectacled, with a warm smile and generous manner. He had a knack of making friends. He was wonderfully well-informed. If you wanted to work out what was happening in Kashmir – not the superficial story but what was working away underneath the surface – Shujaat was the man to talk to. He had contacts on every side. And he was keen to listen too. He wanted to understand how Kashmir was seen from afar before it could happen his soul silenced to witness the fateful day.