Pak Militant Among Killers of Shujaat Bukhari

Pak militant who killed Shujaat Bukhari identified as Naveed Jatt.

Srinagar: The Jammu and Kashmir Police have identified the attackers who shot dead senior journalist Shujaat Bukhari here on June 14. Two of the attackers are from South Kashmir and another is a Pakistani national, according to the police.

“We have identified the attackers,” a top police officer privy to the investigation told The Indian Express. “Two of them are local militants from south Kashmir while the third one is from Pakistan”.

Police identified the Pakistani militant involved in the attack as Naveed Jatt who had escaped from police custody from Shri Maharaja Hari Singh hospital in February this year. Naveed, a Pakistani national, is associated with Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT).

Police have also identified the Pakistan-based blogger who had “started a smear campaign” against Bukhari. He is a militant from Srinagar, settled in Pakistan.

Bukhari, a senior journalist and Chief Editor of Rising Kashmir, was killed on June 14 by three men outside his office in Srinagar’s press enclave. Two of Bukhari’s PSOs were also killed in the attack.

Police later arrested a youth who had stolen the pistol from one of Bukhari’s guards. However, police said that the youth Zubair Qadri was a drug addict and he had no role in attack.

While police blamed Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) for the attack, Lashkar has denied its complicity in the attack terming it an act of “Indian agencies”.