KEG expresses regret over police not filing charge sheet in Shujaat Bukhari murder case

The Kashmir Editors Guild (KEG) on Monday expressed regret over the police not filing a charge sheet in the murder case of senior journalist Shujaat Bukhari who was shot dead by suspected militants in June this year.

"The KEG regrets that the police have not been able to file a charge sheet in the broad daylight murder of the senior journalist so far. This was despite the fact that the police claimed to have solved the case," a spokesman of the guild said in a statement here.

Bukhari, 48, the editor-in-chief of Rising Kashmir, was killed by gunmen at the Press Enclave here when he was leaving his office for an iftar party on June 15.

Police had later said the conspiracy to kill Bukhari was hatched by Lashker-e-Toiba (LeT) in Pakistan and three cadres of the banned outfit executed the plan.

Referring to the reports of media persons in the valley allegedly being asked by security agencies to disclose their sources, the KEG said a journalist cannot be forced to reveal his source of information and "it is considered illegal across the democracies of the world".

"Freedom of speech cannot be suspended even if the assembly is in suspended animation. While the newspapers have routinely started getting 'notices' to explain things that have gone into print, there are very disturbing reports about reporters being asked to disclose sources, something that has not happened even during the emergency," the spokesman said.

The KEG asked the police to make public the charges against a news magazine journalist Aasif Sultan who was recently detained by the police.

"Police have registered a formal FIR after retaining him for six days. The KEG believes the police must make public the charges against him. The 'incriminating material', the police have stated in a routine statement, is too vague to be accepted as a reason.

"The law enforcing agencies must understand the reality that a journalist's laptop will have 'incriminating' material because data collection is the fundamental activity of the reporters," it said.