Police have claimed that Pakistan based lashkar-e-Tayyeba (leT) outfit hatched conspiracy to shoot dead senior Kashmiri journalist Shujaat Bukhari and three militants including a Pakistani fugitive Naveed Jatt executed the broad day light murder in the press enclave area of capital Srinagar on June 14.
Police released photographs of four persons named in the conspiracy including a Srinagar resident Sheikh Sajjad Gul who has been living in Pakistan since March 2017. Police said a lookout notice would be issued against Gul, who has written blogs against Bukhari, and Interpol help would be sought to nab him.
Addressing a press conference at Police Control Room here, Inspector General of Police (Kashmir range) Soyam Prakash Pani said that police have always referred to Bukhari’s killing as terror related crime.
“We have gathered tangible evidence in the case that would be produced in the charge-sheet,” he said adding the witnesses and documents have to be protected.He said the case has conspiracy part and execution part. Pani said that Sajjad Gul is a Srinagar resident based in Pakistan who started an intimidating campaign against Bukhari on certain social media platforms like kashmirfight. wordpress.com and facebook account "Kadwa sach Kashmir" and twitter handle "Ahmad Khalid" ahmadkhalid@313.
“These sites were spreading hate campaign, malicious and intimidating content against the Kashmiri journalist,” Pani, who was flanked by AK Birdi, Deputy Inspector general (central Kashmir) said. Birdi is heading a Special Investigation Team (SIT) probing Bukhari’s murder.
He said Gul alias Ahmad Khalid has settled in Pakistan since March 2017. Earlier, he has been arrested by Delhi Police in 2003 in a terror case and Parimpora (Srinagar) police in 2016. “We have gone for lookout notice againt Gul. He is one of the persons who created blogs and spread lot of rumours in public domain. We have strong evidence against him,” Pani claimed.
He identified the militants who executed the conspiracy as AzadAhmad Malik, a known leT operative from Anantnag, MuaffarAhmad of Kulgam and Naveed Jatt, a Pakistani militant who fled from police custody in February this year.
He said Police have tangible evidence to establish that the whole conspiracy was hatched in Pakistan by proscribed militant outfit laskar-e-Toiba (leT).
Pani said this is a high profile case and further details shall be recorded in the chargesheet against the accused. He said Police will issue lookout notice against local accused and interpol notice through proper channel shall be issued against Pakistan based Kashmiri blogger Sajjad Gul.
Asked whether the motive behind the conspiracy was found pani said that this part would be taken care of in the charge sheet.
He said the role of Junaid Qayoom, a local resident who was arrested on the basis of his presence at the shootout site, is being probed. Qayoom picked up pistol of one of the two slain policemen guarding Bukhari. The pistol and two cellphones have been recovered from his possession.
Bukhari, Editor-in-chief of a conglomerate of newspapers including English daily Rising Kashmir, was killed on June 14 outside his office at press enclave in Srinagar. Hours after the sensational killing, police released CCTV grabs of the attackers, who were riding a motorcycle. While one of the suspects concealed his identity under helmet, another covered his face with a mask. The third rider’s face is invisible who is holding a bag reportedly carrying assault rifles used in the attack. A volley of fire silenced Shujaat and his bodyguards soon after they embarked on their SUV on the fateful evening.
Militant groups including leT have denied their involvement in the killing. “We would like to call their bluff. If Indian forces are truly convinced that this heinous crime was committed by mujahideen, then they should have no objection to an independent investigation of this murder by a neutral country such as China or Russia,” leT’s chief spokesman Mahmood Shah said in statement.