Shujaat Bukhari, editor of English daily Rising Kashmir , was killed on June 14 last year just outside his office in Srinagar. Before launching the newspaper, he had been the Srinagar correspondent for Frontline and had worked for The Hindu for 15 years between 1997 and 2012. Now his reports have been compiled into a book, The Dirty War in Kashmir , with the foreword written by the editor of Frontline , R. Vijaya Sankar, in which he talks about his association with Bukhari and his courage in reporting from a conflict zone.
In the introduction, ‘Shujaat Bukhari: A man of peace’, the Associate Editor of Frontline , R.K. Radhakrishnan, recalls how Bukhari would make officers of the Army uncomfortable with his probing questions.
He writes that Bukhari wanted people in India to understand the Kashmir issue in a holistic manner — he wanted the Kashmir story to be told by a Kashmiri and not by someone giving it an Indian or a Pakistani twist.
The rest of the book is divided into 10 chapters dealing with reports on wide-ranging subjects over a period of time. He wrote for instance on the simmering anger among the Kashmiri youth towards New Delhi; election boycotts; how the killing spree of civilians at the hands of troops was pushing the youth toward militancy; and how total alienation and the social media ban was resulting in student protests. In all his reports, Bukhari stressed on the need for dialogue to end the ‘dirty war in Kashmir’. He was vocal about the attack on Hindu pilgrims by extremist groups and made it clear that Kashmiris disapproved of such attacks.
A votary of fearless but objective journalism, Bukhari stood for the resolution of the Kashmir issue and remained involved in the Track II dialogue process with Pakistan. His reports are relevant as they provide pointers to the way ahead in Kashmir. For example, he elucidates why the special status of Jammu & Kashmir needs to be protected and how tampering with Article 370 and Article 35-A will further deteriorate the situation in the State. He rues the non-seriousness on the part of the Bharatiya Janata Party-led government in New Delhi to resolve the Kashmir issue.
While he is critical of New Delhi, Bukhari does not spare the separatists either for their lack of acumen to engage in a dialogue process. The book achieves its goal of telling the stories of Kashmir and making readers across India understand why New Delhi should not deal with Kashmir with an iron fist.
The Dirty War in Kashmir: Frontline Reports ; Shujaat Bukhari, LeftWord Books, ₹150.
