Journalist's vehicle attacked by gunmen in J&K's Budgam

Srinagar, June 1 (IANS) Unidentified gunmen fired at the vehicle of a journalist in J&K’s Budgam district on Sunday evening, but he escaped unhurt, officials said.

Officials said that the gunmen fired at the vehicle of local journalist, Manzoor Ahmad Bhat, in Jawalapora village in Budgam.

"Two bullets hit the journalist’s bulletproof vehicle, but he escaped unhurt. The area has been cordoned off to trace the gunmen. Police have taken cognisance of the incident," an official said.

Journalists have been targeted by terrorists in the past as well.

The most recent case was of Shujaat Bukhari, the editor of a local daily, who was killed along with his two security guards by terrorists in the Residency Road area of Srinagar city on June 14, 2018.

On February 19, 1990, Lassa Kaul, director of the Srinagar Doordarshan station, was shot dead by militants in the Bemina area. The killing prompted the station’s closure for three years. On March 1, 1990, P N. Handoo, Assistant Director of Information, was shot dead inside his office at Balgarden in Srinagar.

On April 23, 1991, the murder of Al-Safa editor in chief Mohammad Shaban Wakil served to mute local journalists’ criticism of Kashmiri militants, whom many suspect killed him. According to reports, some gun-wielding men entered the office of Vakil and fired at him indiscriminately.

On October 16, 1992, Syed Ghulam Nabi, Joint Director of Information, was kidnapped and held captive for four days before his body, bearing torture marks, was found. On October 3, 1993, the slaying of Radio Kashmir newsreader Mohammad Shafi Bhat sparked a wave of resignations by his colleagues.

The August 29, 1994, murder of freelance journalist Ghulam Mohammed Lone had a chilling effect on stringers working in outlying areas of the Kashmir Valley. He was killed by a group of masked gunmen who also fatally shot his seven-year-old son in their home in Kangan, Kashmir.

Photojournalist Mushtaq Ali was fatally injured in a parcel bomb explosion in the office of the then-BBC reporter, Yusuf Jameel, on September 7, 1995. Mushtaq died in the hospital on September 10, 1995. The parcel bomb was delivered at the office of Yusuf Jameel by a burqa-clad woman. Jameel and another photojournalist, Habib Naqash, were inside the office when Mushtaq Ali opened the parcel. However, Jameel and Naqash escaped the explosion.

On January 1, 1997, Doordarshan's Srinagar anchor, Altaf Ahmed Faktoo, was shot dead by militants.

On March 16, the same year, freelance journalist Saidan Shafi was killed with his bodyguard in Srinagar. Shafi, a reporter for Doordarshan TV’s “Kashmir File,” a weekly news programme and “Eyewitness”, a five-minute nightly news capsule, was fatally shot in an ambush by two gunmen.

April 8, 1997, Tariq Ahmad, a private television producer, was killed.

On August 10, 2000, a grenade attack at Residency Road in Srinagar brought a hive of journalists to cover the spot. Moments later, a car parked in a lane exploded, in which Hindustan Times photojournalist, Pradeep Bhatia, was killed.

Parvaz Muhammad Sultan, editor of a local news agency, was killed by unidentified gunmen in 2003. He was the editor of the independent news wire service, News and Feature Alliance (NAFA), based in Srinagar.

Senior reporter of the region’s Information department, Abdul Majid Bhat, was killed in a blast in Doda town, in Jammu, on May 9, 2004.

Asiya Jeelani, a freelance journalist who contributed to local newspapers and a human rights activist who worked with the Coalition of Civil Society (JKCCS), was killed in a landmine blast in Kupwara on April 20, 2004. The driver of the vehicle was also killed.

Photojournalist Ashok Sodhi, then chief cameraman of Daily Excelsior, was killed on May 11, 2008, in the Samba district when he was caught in a crossfire close to the border with Pakistan.

On August 13, 2008, Javed Ahmed Mir, 35, was shot dead while covering a demonstration near Bagh-e-Mehtab in Srinagar.

--IANS

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