Shujaat Bukhari, a strong detractor of the “unholy” PDP-BJP alliance

On Thursday evening, a message from a Delhi-based journalist-cum-friend popped up on my phone, asking me to confirm if there had indeed been a fatal attack on senior journalist Shujaat Bukhari. The message caught me totally off guard. I quickly rang up a friend who covers crime for a local Srinagar-based newspaper. He confirmed the news saying that Bukhari had been pumped with bullets, before he hastily hung up.

Within a few minutes, he called me back and gave the devastating news: Shujaat has succumbed to his injuries. I confirmed the same my Delhi-based friend. It wasn’t long before the news became public and tributes started to pour in on social media.

Shujaat was a familiar name in my family ever since he got hitched in a well-heeled family in Srinagar's Natipora area. His father-in-law AG Hafiz, himself a distinguished journalist who had edited a string of newspapers and journals, was a close friend of my father.

Both the journalists jointly brought out a weekly newspaper in late 1990s. Long before I had joined journalism, I got a few opportunities to meet Shujaat. The most recent one came in November 2016, when we met up over dinner at Hotel Green Acer in Srinagar, a gathering which also included veterans such as Prem Shankar Jha , Anand K Sahay and Seema Mustafa.

I vividly recollect Shjuaat briefing the group about the worsening human rights scenario in Kashmir. He told the group that the situation in Kashmir was going downhill as government was using muscle power against the protestors. He minced no words in upbraiding the unwavering stance and military machismo of central dispensation vis-à-vis Kashmir.

Despite his brother holding a berth in Mehbooba Mufti’s cabinet, Shujaat was very critical of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP)- Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government . He was always against what political observers refer to as the “unholy” alliance. In one of his articles written for a Pakistan-based newspaper, Shujaat argued that although PDP emerged in a jiffy on the political landscape of Kashmir by adopting the pro-people policies, its support had started dwindling as soon as it allied with the BJP.

Shujaat was a strong votary of peace. Whenever an olive branch was held out by any government in Kashmir, Shujaat would welcome it in his writings. He was among the few journalists in Valley who had the temerity to welcome the recent announcement of non-initiation of combat operations against the militants during Ramzan, in the face of its outright rejection by both separatists and militants outfits.

Shujaat was always in favor of keeping the communication lines open between India and Pakistan. As media reports suggest, he was also a part of Track II diplomacy between India and Pakistan. He was one of the participants of the meeting that took place in the last week of July 2017 in Dubai.

Former military officials, journalists and civil society members from both India and Pakistan had participated in the meeting. Later a section of press in Pakistani termed the meeting as part of Track II diplomacy.

Shujaat always predicated his argument upon logic and reason. I clearly recollect in 2017 Shujaat was inivited by Islamic University’s Centre for International Relations (Peace and Conflict Studies) to deliver a guest lecture. During the interactive session, one of the students asked Shujaat what should come first, resolution of the Kashmir imbroglio or development.

“Both must go hand in hand as one could not afford to stop the development until a resolution was reached,” pat had come Shujaat’s reply.