‘Rising Kashmir’ journalist Shujaat Bukhari was shot dead last night by terrorists in Kashmir, days before Eid during the holy month of Ramzan. A bullet-ridden body of an Army jawan Aurangzeb, who was abducted earlier in the day, was also recovered from a village in Pulwama district. Bukhari was the brother of Bashrat Bukhari, a minister in the Jammu and Kashmir government.
No sooner did the news of the terror attack on him came out, the journalists, many of whom have talked about the threat to their own life recently, took to Twitter to blame the terror attack on Bukhari on ‘internet trolls’ and use it to bully scientist and columnist Anand Ranganathan. Instead of blaming the terrorists and terror sympathizers for the valley, these ‘journalists’ blamed someone for voicing his opinion against Bukhari’s public views days before the assassination took place.
Earlier this week, Ranganathan had spoken at ORF forum on biased reporting regarding insurgency in Kashmir and other parts of India like Bastar.
https://twitter.com/AdityaRajKaul/status/1006938444331773952?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
He had quoted Bukhari and said how in one of his tweets he had said when it comes to Prophet Mohammad, he is proud to be intolerant. That when it comes to faith, there is no absolute freedom of speech. He was explaining how the ‘fourth pillar’ of the media sometimes misreports insurgency, thereby sympathising with the stone pelters and terrorists. Earlier in the day, Bukhari had defended his stand as an editor.
https://twitter.com/bukharishujaat/status/1007141500336025600?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
However, the media vultures decided to take this as the launchpad to attack and bully Ranganathan and Aditya Raj Kaul, a journalist with the channel Republic, who has also been very vocal about the rising insurgency in Kashmir, where he hails from.
https://twitter.com/DilliDurAst/status/1007274856650452993?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
In a bid to deflect the blame from the terrorists, who actually killed Bukhari, some blamed a man who simply pointed out to the rampant terrorism in the valley and other parts of India, like Bastar.
https://twitter.com/VidyaKrishnan/status/1007298059863130112?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
And some even tried to put the blame on ‘Twitter fundamentalists’ for being sceptical of those who cry ‘death threats’ especially when they have a new venture lined up.
https://twitter.com/BDUTT/status/1007279825936179200?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
What a way to shift blame from the actual terrorists who actually killed one of their own to people on Twitter who disagree with them!
And suddenly the blame was shifted to ‘armchair patriots’, while completely forgetting that Bukhari was assassinated by Islamist extremists.
https://twitter.com/Nidhi/status/1007299054198493187?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
Of course, speaking out against their fraternity for their biased reporting also made Ranganathan ‘vile supremacist’.
https://twitter.com/yehlog/status/1007317691852615680?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
Oh, and some even tried to put the blame on ‘right wing’.
https://twitter.com/rkarnad/status/1007299168694464512?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
https://twitter.com/suvojitc/status/1007304736217976832?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
Again, let us remind you, Bukhari was killed by Islamist terrorist, not by someone who disagrees with mainstream media on Twitter.
https://twitter.com/bainjal/status/1007435854946750464?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
https://twitter.com/neeleshmisra/status/1007341485828820992?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
Unfortunate that at a time when one of their colleagues is shot at and killed by terrorists, these journalists, instead of mourning and condoling his death were busy scoring political points and indulging in hate mongering and bullying private citizens.
According to journalist who has been covering Kashmir for quite sometime, Bukhari was shot by Lashkar’s Fahad Waza and Mehrajuddin Bangroo. Not Twitter trolls or Scientists and columnists giving speeches. Actual terrorists with guns.
https://twitter.com/rahulpandita/status/1007336140817555456?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
Meanwhile, Kashmir Police has released visuals of suspects who could have killed Bukhari and has asked the general public to help identify them.
https://twitter.com/KashmirPolice/status/1007330856103391232?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw