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| Tale of three lens-men: One died two survive, show goes on | | |
Early Times Report
Jammu, Jan 8: In a conflict zone, journalists walk on the razor’s edge to report death almost daily. In the unending quest for news, some times the news makers themselves become news. And when it happens, the colleagues write obituaries and authorities pay floral tributes.
Ashok Sodhi of Daily Excelsior believed in hard work and fair play. Initially he was not interested in photo journalism. His family and friends were very happy with the sting in his pen. However, slowly but surely he realized that the thrill that he was looking for in the `second oldest profession of the world’ was not on the desk. He decided to shoot (with his camera). Photo journalism thrilled him but he paid a heavy price. Sodhi fell to bullets on May 11, 2008 in Samba while covering an encounter. Sodhi’s friends bade a tearful farewell to him.
Sodhi’s death was mourned by the journalistic community in Jammu and in the Valley as well. A renowned photo journalist of the Valley Danish Ismaiel holds Sodhi in high esteem. “All photo journalists are members of a single family. I know Sodhi personally. His death is a huge loss to photo journalism in the state.”
Danish was roughed up several times while performing his professional duties. However, he rejects such incidents as hazards of profession. But people who survived certain death have a different story to tell.
Renowned photographer, HU Naqash had gone to army headquarters along with his two colleagues on November 3, 1999 to meet Major Purshotam. It was getting dark. As Major was entertaining his guests from the fourth estate, guns started trotting. Naqash drew Major’s attention towards firing but his answer made the journalists smile. “Yeh Diwali kay patakhay hain” (These are Diwali crackers).But the reality soon dawned on him. It was a fidayeen attack. Major Purshotam quickly locked Naqash and his colleagues in the bathroom. Meanwhile, the gunmen entered the room and shot Major Purshotam dead.
“We were ordered by an army officer to lie down. We obeyed and stayed in that position till the operation ended. Then we were taken to a building for questioning. This is when we feared for our lives. The army officer did not trust us. Finally our identity was ascertained and we were set free”, Naqasah said.
Aman Farooq, who works for a local English daily, Greater Kashmir while covering the aftermath of the Lal Chowk encounter had a verbal dual with a senior police officer on January 7. According to Aman’s colleague, Omar Ganie: “He (police officer) slapped our colleague Yawar on his face while we were performing professional duties. Finding the DSP totting the gun, Amaan found it worth a frame and at once caught the official in his camera. On this, as per Amaan’s colleagues, the official got further annoyed and abused the media team threatening them to leave the spot without any delay. On this we hurriedly came down. But for Amaan, the worst had yet to come. In a few moments the DSP also rushed down and started following them. And after a few steps, he cocked his pistol and fired at Amaan. We were busy photographing the scene when suddenly we heard a gunshot and saw Amaan lying on the ground in a pool of blood. We asked the officer, ‘Why did you shoot him?’ and he said, ‘No, I didn’t’ and ran away.”
Sodhi is dead, Naqash misses a beat when reminded of that horrifying evening and Aman has survived the bullet. The show goes on.
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