Vinod Sharma
The brutal and mindless murder of semior journalist and editor-in-chief of Rising Kashmir newspaper, Sujhaat Bukhari, has yet again exposed the militant organisations’ frustrated attempt to block out the truth from the people by attacking the important institution of democracy-the Press. Sujhaat was a fearless and courageous media soldier who always advocated lasting peace in Kashmir-which did not find favour either with Pakistan or with Pak-sponsored militant organizations. And Sujhaat may not be the last mediaperson to fall prey to militants’ heinous and cowardly attempt to silence peace trucers as the threat always looms large on presspersons covering Kashmir under a reign of fear and gun.
Kashmir has a long list of journalists and mediapersons who have had sacrificed their lives at the altar of militancy while performing their professional duties, since the militancy gained roots in Kashmir valley in 1989. The Press has been constantly gagged and silenced by the gun-totting militants. During initial years, no one could dare to write the truth which went against the militants. The result was that the truth remained a distant cry in Kashmir and only news favourably tailored for militants and their versions of the incidents were daily splashed on the newspapers. There was hardly any other news in Kashmir Press except the handouts of the militant outfits whose number was put at 150 in those days.
Initially, the Press liasoned the militants, some in a bid to gain circulation while others attempted to ward off fear and backlash. But it was like riding on a tiger. The Press in Kashmir had come to be an arm of militants’ propaganda machinery and anybody who wished to show independent approach, faced the wrath of terrorists to their own peril.
All these years, the militant organizations as per Pak directions, succeeded in terrorizing the Press. Bans were ordered against critical and unobliging newspapers and media persons, while others preferred to the line of the militants and dished out tailored reports for their survival. The situation is like that of deep sea and the devil. If a statement of one terrorist outfit is published, another outfit is annoyed and one runs the risk of inviting a ‘ban’. And in the alternative, non-publication of the statement of a militant outfit may also invite similar ban. The Press in Kashmir has always been in a way caught in a ‘cross-fire’ between various terrorist organizations.
As part of militants’ violence against against the Press, media persons were killed, their offices burnt, staff kidnapped and beaten. Independent minded correspondents were asked to leave the valley and circulation of some newspapers banned. Though some media persons have had close affinity with top ranking militants and served their purpose, yet it a tight rope walk for everyone in view of proliferation of terrorist outfits, having no respect for freedom of speech and expression.
To recall, four major killings were executed by terrorists in the Valley since 1990 when four prominent journalists were gunned down. Three of them belonged to the official media-Lassa Koul, director, Doordarshan Kendra Srinagar, Syed Ghulam Nabi, joint director, Information, Srinagar and P. N. Handoo, assistant director Srinagar, and one was the Editor of Daily Alsafa, Mohammed Shaban Vakil. These killings had shocked the Kashmir in particular and the country in general. All the four were eliminated by militants who accused them of working against the ‘movement’. These killings had the desired impact on the Press which lost its moorings.
The first major attack on the media was made on February 13, 1990 when Lassa Koul was gunned down as he was entering his house at Bemina Colony. On 1st March, 1990, P.N.Handoo was killed by notorious Bitta Karate at Balgarden locality as he was leaving for office. Shaban Vakil was gunned down in his office on 23rd March 1991. Syed Ghulam Nabi was first kidnapped on October 16, 1992, tortured and then killed by pro-Pak Jamait-ul-Mujahideen on 20th October.
The list of other attacks on the freedom of Press is also long. On 1st May 1990, circulation of national and Jammu-based newspapers was stopped following first threat by the Hizbul Mujahideen outfit. Militants exploded bomb in the Dalgate house of the Editor of daily Srinagar Times, Ghulam Mohd Sofi on 2nd October, 1990. His Badshah Chowk office was subjected to arson on 5th October and 10th October 1990 and ultimately burnt. On 4th November, 1990, the printing press of Daily Afthab was damaged in a powerful explosion in Gowkadal. The copies of the paper were burnt by a group of militants at Pampore in Pulwama district describing the paper as ‘anti-movement’.
Two Jammu-based English dailies, Excelsior and Kashmir Times were banned in Kashmir valley by pro-Pak outfits on 20th December 1990 and this ban was lifted only on February 10, 1991. In another assault on freedom of Press, Hizbul Mujahideen threatened the newspapers against advocating ‘solution’ of Kashmir issue on the basis of ‘give and take’. The same outfit imposed ban on 15th May, 1991 on publication of statements of Dr Farooq Abdullah and other political leaders, who talked of peace in the Kashmir valley. Not only this, militant outfit Mahaz-e-Islami had slapped a ban on Delhi’s Urdu periodical ‘Al Risala’ on 7th October 1991 in a bid to muzzle the dissenting voice.
BBC’s Srinagar correspondent Yusuf Jameel’s house was made the target of grenade attack twice on 18th February and 31st March, 1991. The entry of Delhi edition of Indian Express was banned by Hizbul Mujahideen and its Srinagar-based correspondent George Joseph was ‘directed’ to leave Kashmir valley within 48 hours for his alleged ‘anti-movement’ reports. Another outfit-J&K Liberation Army-had imposed a ban on Government and private advertisements in Srinagar Times on 18th April, 1992 and imposed a ‘fine’ of Rs one lakh on Alsafa newspaper for defying its instructions.
Another militant outfit, Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) banned entry of ‘Sunday’ weekly and its correspondent Ms Shiraz Sidhva, on 2nd May 1992, as she ‘dared’ to cast aspersions on the outfit. She had been consistently highlighting militants’ point of view, but once she made ‘uncharitable remarks’ on one outfit, pat came the ‘ban’. Al-Umar Mujahideen also put a ban on a periodical ‘Sunday Times’ on 14th May, 1992. Another outfit-Allah Tigers-had also imposed ‘ban’ on an English daily of Srinagar, Greater Kashmir. The house of Aftab Editor Sanaullah Bhat was also burnt by the militants while office of Alsafa ransacked.
Interestingly, the demand for front page treatment to statements and claims of various militant outfits was so heavy that once Srinagar Times carried a box item once, explaining that “almost three dozen statements are received daily from the militants and all demanded to be on the front page of the newspaper. Once, Hizbul Mujahideen had told the newspapers, what to write and what not to write. “No suggestions were to be made that Kashmir issue could be settled through negotiations. Stern action was threatened if the Press did not provide bold coverage to the activities of Hizbul Mujahideen on the front page”.
The voice of the Press in Kashmir has had always been stifled at the hands of militants ever since the advent of militancy. Gagging the Press is very convenient as well as an effective tool to prevent truth from appearing in the strife-torn Kashmir valley. This is the one reason that the misdeeds and atrocities of militants in the valley could never be highlighted.
To recapitulate, Kashmir-based militant organizations don’t want or allow anyone to talk or give suggestions for return of peace and tranquility in the once paradise on earth. Hence, peace initiators like Sujhaat Bukhari are silenced forever at the instance of militant outfits and their mentors across the border.
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