A day after senior journalist Shujaat Bukhari and his two security officers were killed in the heart of Srinagar by three terrorists, the police have released the photo of a fourth suspect.
The suspect, a bearded man in a white shirt, can be seen in the photo checking on the bodies in the car, not long after Mr Bukhari was shot dead.
As someone pulls out one of the bodies from the car, the suspect is seen picking up a pistol and leaving, reports news agency.
The fourth man is suspected to be a local.
The Editor-in-Chief of “Rising Kashmir” was killed when he had just left his office in Press Enclave and was heading to an Iftar party. The police suspect the killers were working for the Pakistan-based terror outfit Lashkar e Taiba.
Shujaat Bukhari was a widely respected journalist from Jammu and Kashmir.
Last night, the police released security footage of the terrorists on a bike. The faces of the rider and the third man are hidden by a helmet and a mask. The man in the middle is seen holding what seems to be a lack of weapons. His face is shielded from the cameras by the third man.
A CCTV grab of the three suspects on a motorcycle released earlier by the Jammu and Kashmir police.
Mr Bukhari, 52, was given police protection after an attempt on his life 18 years ago. The father of two, who was often part of “track-2” diplomacy between India and Pakistan, was also said to be on a terrorist hit list.
In 2006, Mr Bukhari was kidnapped by unknown gunmen who then attempted to shoot him at close range. Miraculously, the gunman’s pistol got locked and the journalist ran for his life.
In recent weeks, he had strongly backed the internal ceasefire announced by New Delhi for Ramzan.
Just days ago, he tweeted on the killings of two policemen in Pulwama in south Kashmir.
“It is heart-wrenching to see these policemen getting killed during Shab e Qadr. May the families have the courage to bear the loss. In the end, two more Kashmiris lose lives. Violence must stop to create a space for dialogue,” he posted.
Hundreds of mourners in Kashmir today joined the funeral procession of Mr Bukhari at his ancestral village Kreeri in Baramulla. Despite heavy rain, crowds of villagers, friends and colleagues followed the procession through the streets of the village.
