Invoking Shujaat’s murder, police officer targets media men

SRINAGAR — A police officer Thursday claimed that slain journalist ‘Shujaat Bukhari had confided with him about some media guys spreading canards and creating conducive atmosphere for his murder.’

SSP Security of Jammu and Kashmir police Imtiyaz Hussain Thursday, in a series of tweets, targeted ‘some media men’ after an apparent argument with a journalist. The journalist too tweeted, claiming that he was threatened by two police officers.

Police officer Imtiyaz Hussain tweeted: “Shujat had confided with me how some media guys had been spreading canards against him and creating a conducive atmosphere for his murder. We being a liberal democracy, such elements take full advantage of our liberal laws, knowing it very well that law can’t touch them.”

He also claimed that people claiming to be journalists were building an environment to get him killed. “There are some well known people hyperactive on Facebook and Twitter who are building an environment to get me killed. These people, claiming to be journalists, aren’t apparently working with any media house,” he wrote.

Hussain said that he was among very few police officers active on social media who was ‘forthright’. “Having been never afraid of death and it would be honour to get sacrificed in the line of duty but the perception being created against me is slanderous. I am one among very few police officers active on social media and being forthright and calling a spade a spade,” he wrote.

Adding that his forthrightness had become ‘intolerable to these journalists’ and that they wanted to silence the officer on social media. ”This is becoming intolerable to them and their bosses across have employed them to target me. They want to silence me on social media. They are the same people who have built a case for Shujat Bukhari’s killing,” he tweeted.