Daily Times

His team at Rising Kashmir, the English-language daily where he served as editor-in-chief, did not halt production in the wake of the targeted assassination. Instead, they paid Bukhari the most fitting tribute they could. This speaks volumes of the bravery and dedication of Kashmiri journalists.

Bukhari was a veteran reporter from Indian-held Kashmir. He was also a regular contributor to publications on this side of the border. That he is no more represents a loss for the fourth estate on both sides.

We support global watchdog Committee to Protect Journalists (CJP) in its calls to the Indian authorities to ensure a thorough and credible investigation into Bukhari’s murder. One that ends with the men who pulled many, many triggers brought to justice. The CJP has long contended that Jammu and Kashmir is one of the most dangerous states for journalists in this region.

That being said, we would caution the Pakistani government against trying to capitalise on the tragedy. Certain official tweets linking Bukhari’s assassination to the first-ever UN probe into human rights atrocities in Kashmir are opportunistic at best. Admittedly, New Delhi has rejected the report as biased. But Islamabad would do better to put its own house in order first; given the increasing number of journalists and civil society activists who are picked up by the security apparatus.

Among Bukhari’s critics are those who highlight his efforts for Indo-Pak peace. Aside from the usual slurs that seek to recast him as a ‘Pakistan apologist’ are suggestions that he may have courted his own bloody end. On the grounds that journalists have no business advocating peace and diplomacy between two ‘enemy’ nations.

In another time and another place, we might concur. But the reality is that New Delhi and Islamabad have, for 70 long years, failed to reach a negotiated settlement of the Kashmir issue. Meaning that for seven decades, the people of this disputed territory have been robbed of the fundamental right of self-determination. Indeed, even the world body of peace-loving nations has stayed away until now.

It is therefore against this backdrop, whereby the political process suffers constant paralysis, that journalists find themselves with no other option than to do the heavy-lifting. To get facts off the ground and into the public consciousness; all the while challenging established narratives. Moreover, this has, at various times, been encouraged by governments on both sides as part of the outsourcing rhetoric of people-to-people contact within the broader context of confidence-building measures.

Thus a sincere return to the Indo-Pak peace process remains the only viable means of improving the plight of those across both sides of the Line of Control (LoC). What will not work is this perpetual silencing of voices. It was unsuccessful before and will remain so now. For simply put, the fourth estate will now allow the murder of Bukhari, and those before him, to be in vain.

We will fight the good fight.  *

Published in Daily Times, June 16^th 2018.