BJP leader under attack for remarks against Kashmiri journalists

Jammu, June 23 (PTI): Former minister and senior BJP leader Lal Singh has alleged that Kashmiri journalists have created “an erroneous atmosphere” and warned them to draw a line or face the fate of ‘Rising Kashmir’ editor Shujaat Bukhari, who was shot dead by militants.
The party said the remarks merited “immediate cognisance” by the state police.
“Kashmiri journalists have created an erroneous atmosphere and I would like to ask them to draw a line…You want to live like what happened to Basharat (Shujaat Bukhari)…Take care of yourselves and draw a line so that the brotherhood is not broken and it is maintained so that progress and development is ensured, Singh told reporters here yesterday.

Singh, who has started a campaign for a CBI probe into the Kathua rape-and-murder case after resigning from the previous PDP-led government in April, has quite often over the past few months blamed the media, especially Kashmir-based journalists, for creating a wrong perception about the January incident.

Singh and his colleague Chander Prakash Ganga had resigned on April 13 over their participation in an earlier rally in support of the accused in the gang rape and murder of the eight-year-old girl in Kathua district.

Reacting to the remarks of the BJP leader, the National Conference termed it as outrageous and said it merited immediate cognisance by the state police.
Earlier, NC vice president and former chief minister Omar Abdullah wrote on his Twitter account, Dear journalists, your colleagues in Kashmir just got threatened by a @BJP4India MLA.