shujaat bukhari rising kashmir

Murder of Shujaat Bukhari of Rising Kashmir, has shocked everyone. He is not the first journalist

Sheikh Ghulam Rasool Azad

who has been killed by unidentified assassins in Kashmir. But, so far, none of them have been caught

The murder in broad daylight of senior journalist Shujaat Bukhari, editor-in-chief of the English daily Rising Kashmir, has shocked the entire media fraternity in the Valley—and has them wondering whether the killers will ever be brought to justice.Bukhari is not the first journalist who has fallen to the bullets of unidentified assassins in Kashmir. So far, none of the killers has been cuaght and punished.The first media person to be killed in Kashmir was Lassa Koul, director of the local Doordarshan Kendra. Koul was kidnapped and subsequently killed in early 1990.

The Special Operation Group of JK Police claimed to have eliminated the " acting chief" of the pro-Pakistan 'AL-Fatha Force' identified as Mushtaq Ahmad Lone @General Mossa' in an counter with the SOG. Even as none of the militant organisation said anything about the man or the incident, some of the some of the journalists here claimed that Mr. Lone was not a militant but "printer, publisher and editor of vernacular weekly " Wehdat-e-Milli". JK Police have recovered  from his person an identity card which described the deceased as "printer, publisher & amp; editor " of the Urdu weekly.

More details at: http://writerasia.blogspot.com/2011/08/mushtaq-ahmad-lone-editor-wehdat-e.html

Mushtaq Ahamd Lone

In April 1991, Muhammad Shaban Vakil, editor of the vernacular daily Al-Safa, was killed in his office in Srinagar city.

In September 1995, Mushtaq Ali, a photojournalist with the AFP wire service, was killed in a parcel bomb explosion in the office of Yusuf Jameel, the then BBC correspondent in Kashmir. A burqa-clad woman had delivered the parcel bomb at Jameel's office in Srinagar's Press Enclave.

On January 1, 1997, Altaf Ahmad Faktoo, an anchor of the local Doordarshan Kendra was killed.On March 16, 1997, freelance journalist, Saidan Shafi was killed in Srinagar.

In February 2003, Parvaz Muhammad Sultan, who ran a  news agency, was killed in his office, again in Srinagar's Press Enclave.

In March 1996, Sheikh Ghulam rasool Azad, editor of the Urdu-language daily Rehnuma-e-Kashmir and the English-language weekly Saffron Times, was found dead on April 10 floating in Kashmir's Jhelum River. He had written about an increase in killings and arson incidents his hometown, Pampore. Family members say a militia group backed by Indian state security forces had kidnapped him in March.

In 29  August 1994, Ghulam Muhammad Lone and his 4 year old son reportedly killed by ARMED FORCES, in Kangan, Jammu and Kashmir.

In 29 April,2004, Asiya Jeelani, a freelance journalist, was killed in a mine explosion in India-controlled Kashmir, while working with the Coalition of Civil society to prepare a report on its election monitoring activities.

In February 2003, Parvaz Muhammad Sultan, who ran a local news agency, was killed in his office, again in Srinagar's Press Enclave.

Mushtaq Ahmad Lone, Editor "Wehdat-e-Milli"

By: Sheikh Gulzaar

e-mail: gulzar@journalist.com, writerasia@in.com

The Special Operation Group of JK Police claimed to have eliminated the " acting chief" of the pro-Pakistan 'AL-Fatha Force' identified as Mushtaq Ahmad Lone @General Mossa' in an counter with the SOG. Even as none of the militant organisation said anything about the man or the incident, some of the some of the journalists here claimed that Mr. Lone was not a militant but "printer, publisher and editor of vernacular weekly " Wehdat-e-Milli". JK Police have recovered  from his person an identity card which described the deceased as "printer, publisher & amp; editor " of the Urdu weekly.

Shaheed Mushtaq A. Lone

Official sources told local newspapers that in reaction militants attacks on joint camp of STF and Ikhwan  between Onta Bhawan and Bilal Colony during the three proceeding nights, Special operation Group , Srinagar laid ambush yesterday evening which as maintained for several hours.Before  five militants passed by the ambush and fell into the trap. A encounter took place between, the two sides during witch, Mushtaq Ahmad Lone @General Moosa" got  killed and all of his accomplices managed to escape from the drag net. One AK -56 rifle and and a pouch   was claimed to have recovered him.

A police press release said that 'Gen Mossa' was functioning as Supreme Cammander of AL-Fatha Force' in  the absence of Tariq Aziz alias Zan-ul-Aabideen. It was further claimed that the top ranking militant had been instrumental in reactivating and re-organizing militancy in Kashmir and Udhampur after the installation of the democratic Government 'Gen. Mossa' was described as a Pakistani trained  militant which attained training in handling of sophisticated weapons and crossed back 1991.Immediately he was made  District Commander of Jehad Force  which ultimately splintered into Al-Fatha Force in 1994", said the release. It adds that 'Mossa' was responsible for various  activities including killings and attacks on Army, STF as also for organizing anti-election campaign in South Kashmir. " The deceased was also involved in killing of 21 Ikwanis, 34 Indian army jawans . He was also  described as "an very important  but 2nd in Command member of  " Shoura-e-Jehad". Yet another statement from the department of Information Department said that Police had recovered " from the pocket of the deceased militant,  Prees Card in the name of Mushtaq Ahmad Lone indicated him as printer, publisher and editor of  "Wehdat-e-Milli."

A senior Information Department official, when contacted, confirmed that according to the records Mushtaq Ahmad Lone son of Mr. Ghulam Mohidin Lone, resident of Pathan Pulwama was the bonfire printer, publisher and editor of the Urdu weekly. A district Magistrate had confirmed the declaration after necessary verification about the   antecedents of the deceased by JK Police and CID. Some journalist said that they knew the deceased as an editor for the last several years and claimed that he had never been militant.

Inspector General of Police , Kashmir Zone, Gpoal Sharma  when contacted, said that Lone was the acting chief of the militant organisation and the same had been " confirmed properly”. Neither any militant organisation  nor the press community here issued any statement about the man or the incident in which he was reported killed. 

About the author: Sheikh Gulzaar is a editor with Writer-South Asia and can be contacted  at:  writerasia@in.com, gulzar@journalist.com

Mailing address: Writer- South Asia, POB 667 Srinagar SGR  J&K 190001 (Via New Delhi-India)

A tribute to Martyar Mushtaq Ahmad Lone by Ed. Sheikh Gulzaar

Mushtaq Ahmad Lone

Obviously we all have some day to leave forever, though one today and the another tomorow. The conception is natural and final.

Long ago, in the same way, a beautiful star was born which with the intensity twinkled, fascinated and got shrouded in the ultima thule of the horizons. Na, Na, the story is not in any way all about a billion year old burnt star of some globular cluster, the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) discovered. The star here is our beloved Mushtaq Ahmad Lone who only a year back reached the destination. Whenever the regional history would be rewind, Mushtaq's precious and constructive contribution is certain to remember. And one desiring the unity of the Muslims can find Mushtaq in the pages of history always dreamt in his life of only day to come  when the Muslims would not have slit one another's throat but to exchange their true love. When the brothers have one another's tears to wipe off. Safety of the Muslims, prosperity of the Muslims and the understanding  among the Muslim Nations was  the dream Mushtaq Ahmad Lone wished come true. Whether Sarajevo, Central Asia, Kashmir, palestine, Afghanistan, Libya or Mogadishu the cosmopolitan used to say are the issues of the Muslim world and the body is to feel pain of its severely bruised organs.

Contrary to sweet dreams of his parents the son Mushtaq placed  all worldly advantages aside and  joined  a Holy mission to serve the Muslim cause with the  unique power of his pen. So, besides working for many dailies, Wahdat-e-Milli, an  Urdu Weekly presenting news and views was finally launched. Every  Edition of the News & views. Weekly was fund showering to the bruised healing touch. Rightly  some  one said the sincerer heart has to bleed more. Same  was the case  with the Wahdat-e-Milli Editor. Inspite of the  criticismfrom many  quarters, even the so called intellectual, and  weak financial position  Mushtaq said. was never up his mission  of his life. The Wahdat-e-Milli  turned  from offset to the litho, yet kept pace  with the cruel time. "Off course not money  but my paper gives me  what is not  in everyone's fate. I am blessed by it with the satisfaction. The satisfaction that is very hard to get in one's life ", Mushtaq often said.

The garden of a series of hopes was total shattered when the blossom was mercilessly taken away. Mushtaq Ahmad Lone ws  martyred and the story of a hot burnt star reached to an end. The star would blub the tears of blood if revealed to him all that followed the end of his missionary life of the Wahdat doctrine. Merchants  of the nation and self-styled patrons of the religion detonated  a violent bomb.They campaigned with their dirty ideas against the Martyr' burial in a shrine's vicinity inn the ancestral village of Pathan. In this age of ultra modern civilization they said the imperfect burial according to them was  responsible for a chain of natural deaths of the old people. One  is ashamed when learns about this dirty joke of the century and fears what would happen if the opportunistic westerners would also learn. Let ask this sense less Saint that by acquiring whose calibre he said so?  Does he mean to say  the Muslims vote for the regionalisim? Or if he has an another theory of the earth being under different controls? Mr. Saint, Mushtaq Ahmad Lone never told to make his tomb on the surface and does not need. Because our hearts for the same were occupied at the earliest when Mushtaq Ahmad Lone selected his fore head for:-
Dervaish Khuda Mast Sheriquee Hey Na Garabee Ghar Mera Na Dilli Na Saffahaun Na Samarkand

11th August Foundation pay tributes to Sheikh Aziz, Abdul Qayoom, Jalal-ul-din,Nasir Bakhtiyar, Sheikh Muzamil, Sheikh Zahoor, Shahnawaz Saleem

Pampore, May 21: 11th August Foundation Pampore on Sunday  paid rich tributes to late Mirwaiz Muhammad Farooq and Abdul Gani Lone, Sheikh Aziz, Abdul Qayoom, Jalal-ul-din, Nasir Bakhtiyar, Sheikh Muzamil, Sheikh Zahoor, Shahnawaz Saleem, Dr. Qazi Nisaar, Nasir-ul-Islam, Shamsul Haq, Mohd. Ashraf Dar, Sheikh Abdul hanid, Ashfaq Majeed Wani, Sheikh Ghulam Rasool Azad, Mushtaq Ahmad Lone, Abu Talha, Jamal Afghani, and all of our martyrs  at a seminar organized by 11th August Foundation here.   

Speakers highlighted the supreme sacrifices of Kashmiri martyrs and renewed their pledge to take their mission to a logical end. “They sacrificed their today for our better tomorrow,” speakers said. 

They also denounced the “unabated human rights violations” in Kashmir and appealed the international community to impress upon India to put an end to it.

Terming unity as key to success they said that it was high time that Kashmiri leaders should burry their hatchet and forge a broad based unity so as to take the people out from the dark prospects of despondency and chaos.  

Describing dialogue as a civilized way to resolve dispute they said that Kashmiris were not averse to dialogue, however, they maintained that bilateralism had miserably failed to resolve Kashmir dispute and emphasized the need for associating genuin. (Writer-South Asia)

FAMILIES OF SLAIN HR DEFENDERS PIN HOPE ON UN RAPPORTEUR

Srinagar, Jan 19: While the United Nations Rapporteur, Margaret Sekaggya is scheduled to visit Kashmir on Wednesday to assess the situation of human rights defenders, justice still eludes the families of several such defenders killed in different incidents in Kashmir in the past two decades, reports GK 18/1.

Pinning hope on the UN Rapporteur, the families of several defenders have shot off letters to Sekaggya to apprise her about their plight.

Fifteen years before, a prominent human rights lawyer Jaleel Andrabi disappeared and was later killed. Justice still eludes his family as the trial of the accused Major Avtar Singh is yet to start, despite repeated directions from a Court to arrest Singh, whose presence in California was confirmed by the United States National Central Bureau (USNCB) of Interpol in 2009.

Disappeared on March 8, 1996, Jaleel’s body was found 19 days after his disappearance. In April, 1997, the Special Investigation Team constituted by the state government to investigate the killing presented its initial findings to the High Court and claimed that one Major Avtar Singh from the 103rd Unit of the Territorial Army and other soldiers were responsible for the abduction and killing of Jaleel. However, the SIT was unable to arrest Singh as they could not trace him.

Talking to Greater Kashmir Jaleel's brother Arshad Andrabi said he had sent a letter to UN Rapporteur seeking justice from the international organization.

He blamed the state government for insincerity to proceed in the matter. “The abnormal delay coupled with inherent defects in the investigation suggests that the government is neither sincere nor interested to pursue the case. They must be waiting for the witnesses to die or be eliminated by the same invisible hands which have manipulated the killing and subsequent cover up of the case for 16 years," he said.

He also talked about a “larger conspiracy” on the part of officers of Army, Intelligence and Police who according to him had worked in tandem before the killing of his brother-Jaleel.

A letter shot by USNCB of Interpol has confirmed that Major Avtar Singh lives in California. However, the US-based agency has asked the Interpol New Delhi to furnish the record of proceedings translated and certified version of conviction record, charge-sheet, and other relevant documents.

In another incident on December 31, 1993, unidentified gunmen kidnapped Dean Faculty of Law Kashmir University Dr Abdul Ahad Wani and took him to a nearby area Sadrabal, Srinagar where he was shot dead. In similar incidents, noted human rights defender H N Wanchoo, advocate Ghulam Qadir Sehlani, Dr Abdul Ahad Guru,  Sheikh Ghulam Rasool Azad (Editor Kashmir Saffron Times), Mushtaq Ahmad Lone Editor, Wehdat-e-Milli), Dr Farooq Ahmad Ashai and Ms Asiya Jeelani were killed.

Reportedly, days after Jaleel’s killing, women human rights defender, Dr Hamida Nayeem went to Geneva to attend a Human Rights Conference. On her return to Valley, she was allegedly harassed and her passport seized by the state government for raising voice against the HR violations.

The Kashmir-based human rights organizations and civil society groups have exuded hope that the UN Special Rapporteur’s visit would help them highlight the crackdown on the human rights defenders.

In the backdrop of last year’s summer unrest in the Valley which left 112 civilians dead in police and paramilitary CRPF action, the UN Rapporteur is to assess the condition of human rights defenders. Officials said Margaret Sekaggya, the UN Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights Defenders, is scheduled to meet top officials of the State including the Home Secretary, Director General of Police besides the civil society and human rights groups.

Tributes paid to Aali kadal Martyrs. Shaheed I Hurriyat Sheikh Abdul Hameed and others remembered.: JKLF

Srinagar, Nov 19: On the martyrdom anniversary of Shuhada I Aalikadal, today rich tributes were paid to  Shaheed I Hurriyat Sheikh Abdul Hameed,Shaheed Mushtaq Ahmad Lone, Shaheed Adv.Jamil Chowdary,Shaheed Fayaz Ahmad Sheikh ,Shaheed Mushtaq Ahmad Kuttay,Shaheed Manzoor Ahmad Khan and Shaheed Ghulam Ahmad ..JKLF Chairman Mohammad Yasin Malik and other leaders and activists visited Mazar I Shuhada(martyrs graveyard) Eid Gah today and a memorial ceremony was held there.

Remembering shaheed I Huriyat Sheikh Abdul Hameed JKLF Chairman Mohammad Yasin Malik while addressing a gathering at martyr’s graveyard Eid Gah said that he was one of the bravest sons of soil who never shunned the path of truth. Yasin said that shaheed I hurriyat sheikh abdul hameed was very humble and always ready to respect and follow his seniors .yasin said that sheikh Abdul Hameed will be remembered for his devotion and forging a unity among various thoughts and  Shades of opinions in the azadi camp. yasin said that along with shaheed I Kashmir Ishfaq Majeed wani, Shaheed Hameed laid down the foundation of present struggle and this valued son of  our nation continued his struggle till he attained martyrdom. Yasin Malik also paid tributes to Shaheed Mushtaq Ahmad Lone and said that his steadfastness and passion for an independent Kashmir was inspiring. Yasin while paying tributes to shaheed adv. Jamil Chowdry said that Jamil was from azad Kashmir. He shunned his luxurious carrier and life and fought along with other JKLF people in this part of Kashmir and in this way attained martyrdom, yasin also paid rich tributes to Shaheed Fayaz,Shaheed Mushtaq ,Shaheed Manzoor and Shaheed Ghulam Mohammad .Yasin Malik said that these martyrs sacrificed their today for the betterment of our tomorrow and now it is our duty to follow their foot prints and keep on our struggle till mission is accomplished. Yasin Malik reiterated that JKLF being the torch bearer of this movement for complete independence will leave no stone unturned for the sacred cause. Besides Yasin Malik other senior leaders, activists, family members of martyrs and well wishers also participated in the Programme. After the programme Yasin Malik and others went to the houses of martyrs to show solidarity with their families.

Tributes were also paid to Shaheed Ghulam Nabi Butt (Younger brother of Shaheed Baba I Qoum Mohammad Maqbool Butt) who also departed from us on the same day of 1993. While remembering Shaheed Ghulam Nabi Butt JKLF leaders paid rich tributes to him.