Police foil media protest on Bukhari's death anniversary

Police on Friday foiled a protest by local journalists in the Jammu and Kashmir capital Srinagar on the first death anniversary of noted Kashmiri editor Shujaat Bukhari.

Local journalists and social activists assembled outside the civil secretariat here to protest against the death of prominent Kashmiri editor Shujaat Bukhari on this day last year.

The protesters were carrying placards demanding justice for the family of the slain editor.

Police intercepted the protest march and prevented the demonstrators from assembling outside the civil secretariat that houses the offices of top state government officials.

Some journalists said police personnel misbehaved with them and asked them to board a police van so that they could be taken to the nearest police station.

Police said that Section 144 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPc) is currently in force in the city under which an assembly of five or more persons is deemed as unlawful.

Shujaat Bukhari and his two security guards were brutally murdered on June 14, 2018, outside the office of his English daily 'Rising Kashmir' in the press enclave area of uptown Srinagar.

The police has maintained that three terrorists had murdered the editor outside his office, but there has been no official disclosure so far about the motive behind the gruesome murder.

--IANS

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