Exactly two weeks after senior journalist Shujaat Bukhari was assassinated outside his office in Srinagar’s Press Enclave on June 14, 2018, Jammu and Kashmir Police (JKP), claim to have identified his killers – three assassins and a mastermind, all from Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT).

The assassins include LeT’s Naveed Jatt, the same guy who fled from a Srinagar hospital. The other two are Muzaffar Ahmad alias Talha from south Kashmir’s Qazigund area and Azad Ahmad Malik alias Dada alias Zaid of Anantnag.

Having identified the people who pulled the trigger, the focus of JKP’s investigation has shifted to those who hatched the conspiracy. One of them has already been identified as Sajad Gul, a Srinagar resident who is now residing in Pakistan.

But after the much-awaited press conference by JKP’s top brass where they claimed to have “unmasked” Shujaat’s killers, the question everyone seems to be asking is who wanted him dead and why?

This perhaps can be answered only after JKP’s investigation is completed.

One of the investigating officers, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, told Newslaundary that they are not yet satisfied with the investigation. “The real test starts once we try to crack the conspiracy part of the case. So far we have only identified the killers.” The officer cautiously added: “Dealing with conspiracy part will be the darkest chapter of the investigation as many locals might be involved.” Furthermore, he said that police will cross-check all the malicious material that is available online. “We will scrutinise all the videos, audios as well as pictures and reading material regarding the case.”

Shujaat’s two cell phones will also be sent to the forensic laboratory within a few days. “It got delayed due to legal formalities,” he said.

Investigators are sure that in the coming days, the killers identified by JKP will try to plead innocence by releasing audio or video clips. “There is no organisation that will take responsibility for such a high-profile attack. That is why we saw militant organisations issuing statements one after the other saying ‘we did not carry out the attack’,” the officer added.

Unanswered questions 

At the press conference, the police struggled to explain how Naveed Jatt, one of the longest-surviving LeT militants in Kashmir, who mostly operates in Pulwama-Shopian belt managed to reach Srinagar and kill Bukhari. An A+ category militant Jatt was last seen in a series of pictures with Hizb-ul-Mujahideen’s Saddam Padder and Sameer Tiger.

One of the investigating officers, quoting Intelligence inputs, told Newslaundary, that Jatt, along with his other two associates, was in Srinagar for about a week before they carried out the attack.

The questions that arise now is that if there were Intelligence inputs, then why was Jatt not stopped before he travelled to Srinagar and carried out the attack. How can a high-profile militant such as Jatt stay in Srinagar for a week?

“We are investigating that part as well to know how Jatt was able to travel to Srinagar,” the investigating officer told Newslaundary.

The police also talked about “tangible evidence” in the case and said, “We have our own sources and intelligence gathering network which tracked TCPs [Transmission Control Protocol] and IP addresses to Pakistan.”

As per the police, the main conspirator, who uploaded malicious content against Bukhari, is Sajjad Gul. Additionally, a blog post, kashmirfight.wordpress.com, a Facebook account “Kadwa Sach Kashmir” and a twitter handle “Ahmad Khalid” ‘ahmadkhalid@313’ were part of the malicious campaign launched by Gul against Bukhari.

The investigating team has also probed hundreds of phone calls, WhatsApp audio clips, pictures and videos of all the suspects to crack the case. Additionally, all the legal formalities were followed to a T, right from the beginning. “One of the magistrates was always with us wherever we went and whenever we interrogated anyone, be it militants or any other suspect,” the investigating officer said.

“We also watched and cross-checked over 114 GB video footage of various CCTV cameras across the Valley as the investigation was carried out in south and north of Kashmir as well,” he added. The investigating officer also said that a technical team from Delhi was also present in the Valley, who were here for a different case. “They tried to help us a lot with pictures but they couldn’t help us in the end,” he said.

He said that over a dozen people, both Over Ground Workers (OGWs) as well as civilians, were rounded up from various areas for the investigation.

Who is Sajjad Gul?

Sajjad Gul, a resident of Srinagar, has been in Pakistan since March 2017, on a fraudulently obtained passport. So far, he has been arrested twice in militancy-related cases. He was first arrested by the Delhi Police in 2003, while the second arrest was made by Parimpora Police in Srinagar in 2016.

Sajjad was in Tihar jail for four to six years, sources told Newslaundry. When he was arrested in Srinagar in 2016, it was for reviving the Tehreek-ul-Mujahideen militant outfit in Srinagar. He was detained in Parimpora Police Station only for few months before he left the country in 2017.

“Sajjad, 40, is married to a sister of a Kashmiri militant. He is based in Islamabad, Pakistan and has done MBA from a Bangalore university,” an investigating officer said, on conditions of anonymity.

He said that Sajjad did not operate the malicious blog spot. He is only responsible for the fake Twitter and Facebook accounts. “Sajjad is not the end of the story,” the investigating officer added.

Currently, the police have gone for a look-out notice to apprehend Sajjad, Inspector General Of Police SP Pani has said.

An investigating official told Newslaundary, “The police initially zeroed-in on the LeT, but some of the clues and other intelligence inputs pointed that the indigenous Hizb-ul-Mujahideen has carried out the attack. However, a few days into the investigation we got a confirmed lead that three LeT militants were involved in the attack.”

First arrest

According to the police, Zubair Qayoom, who was present at the scene and was among those first arrested, is not involved in the assassination. “He is a thief and nothing else. He even agreed to a narco test. We are going for the test within few days,” the officer added.

He said the authorities will formally approach Pakistan for the case and finalise subsequent arrests in relation to the case.