List of journalists killed in Kashmir (from 1990)
Last Updated on July 15, 2024 by freespeechcollective
- On February 19, 1990, Lassa Kaul, director of the government-owned Doordarshan television station, was shot dead by militants in Bemina area of Srinagar. 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, Srinagar.
- On April, 23, 1991, 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.
- September 29, 1992, a renowned calligrapher, Ali Mohammad Mahajan, working with Urdu newspapers Hamadard and the Daily Aftab, was killed by paramilitary forces along with his son, Aijaz.
- October 16, 1992, Syed Ghulam Nabi, Joint Director Information, was kidnapped and held captive for four days. On October 20, his dead body found with torture marks.
- October 3, 1993 slaying of Radio Kashmir news reader Mohammad Shafi Bhat sparked a wave of resignations by his colleagues.
- 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.
- On September 10, 1995, Mushtaq Ali, an Agence France-Presse and Asian News International photographer, opened a package at an office in Srinagar’s Press Enclave. The parcel exploded, severing Ali’s left hand, disfiguring his face and severely injuring his right hand and abdomen. He died three days later. The parcel bomb is believed to have been targeted at senior journalist with the BBC, Yusuf Jameel.
- On April 10, 1996, Ghulam Rasool Sheikh, editor of the Urdu-language daily Rehnuma-e-Kashmir and the English-language weekly Saffron Times, was found dead floating in Kashmir’s Jhelum River. Family members alleged that Sheikh was abducted and then killed by a paramilitary group.
- On January 1, 1997 an anchor for the state-owned Doordarshan television station in Srinagar, Altaf Ahmed Faktoo, was shot dead by militants.
- On March 16, 1997 the same year a freelance journalist Saidan Shafi was shot dead along with his bodyguard in Srinagar. Shafi, a reporter for Doordarshan TV, the official Indian television network, for “Kashmir File,” a weekly news program, and “Eyewitness”, a five-minute nightly news capsule, was fatally shot in an ambush by two gunmen in Srinagar.
- 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 a Hindustan Times photojournalist, Pradeep Bhatia, was killed.
- Parvaz Muhammad Sultan, editor of a local news agency, was killed by unidentified gunmen in 2003. Sultan was the editor of an independent news-wire service, News and Feature Alliance (NAFA), based in Srinagar, was shot dead by an unidentified gunman.
- Senior reporter of region’s information department Abdul Majid Bhat was killed in a blast in Doda town, in Jammu, on May 9, 2004.
- Asiya Jeelani was killed in a landmine blast in Kupwara on April 20, 2004. Jeelani was a freelance journalist who contributed to local newspapers, and a human rights activist who worked with a human rights group, Coalition of Civil Society (JKCCS). The blast also killed the driver of the vehicle.
- Ashok Sodhi, a photojournalist and then chief cameraman of Daily Excelsior, was killed on May 11, 2008 in Samba district of Jammu. Sodhi was caught in a crossfire close to India’s border with Pakistan.
- On August 13, 2008, Javed Ahmed Mir, 35, was shot dead while covering a demonstration near Bagh-e-Mehtab. According to the BBC, apart from being a cameraman, was also a textile worker, to help support his wife and three children. Reporters Without Borders urged the government to carry out a thorough investigation into the death of local TV cameraman.
- On June 14, 2018, Shujaat Bukhari, 50, editor of the Rising Kashmir was shot dead outside his office in Press Enclave, Srinagar, by bike-born gunmen. The attackers fired from close range, and a critically injured Bukhari succumbed to his injuries in hospital. His two bodyguards were also killed in the attack.
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