Daily Times

MUZAFFARABAD: The Prime Minister Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) Raja Farooq Haider Khan on Monday paid rich tributes to veteran legendary senior Kashmiri journalist Syed Shujaat Bukhari Shaheed on his second death anniversary.

In a statement issued here, he said Dr. Bukhari was a strong voice of Kashmiris. Indian forces through his assassination deprived the state from a great intellectual.

The Prime Minister said that his role as Chief Editor of Rising Kashmir’s is a guiding star for all the state based newspapers. “The motherland is proud over his unprecedented struggle of securing and protecting the rights of expression besides the birth rights of the people of Jammu and Kashmir” PM added.

He further said that Shujjat Bukhari was targeted on the particular day when UN’s Human Rights Commission issued the report on the HR situation in the occupied valley. “Bukhari and his friends had great contribution in it”, he said.

Raja Farooq Haider Khan said that Bukhari’s journalistic services, particularly his efforts to bring the journalist community of the divided state together would always be remembered.

He recalled Shujjat Bukhari’s visits to the liberated territory and said that he always interacted with the state and national publications during which he highlighted the different aspects of the freedom movement effectively.

The Prime Minister reiterated his resolve that the mission of the late journalist to free the motherland from Indian clutches would continue with the same spirit.

Meanwhile, Minister Information, Tourism and Sports Raja Mushtaq Ahmed Minhas also paid rich tribute to the martyred journalists and said that he was aleading voice for peace, justice and rights in Jammu and Kashmir and ever-lasting Indo-Pakistan peace.

He said Shujjat Bukhari raised voice for people of the state by inviting the international community about the continued deterioration of peace in South Asia following persistent deprivation of the people of Kashmir of their due right of self-determination by India particularly.

The Minister said India will never succeed in its dastardly designs to subdue the freedom movement in IOK.