Tribune News Service

New Delhi/Srinagar, June 15

Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh met Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday and weighed the option of extending the Ramzan ceasefire (which ends on Saturday) in Jammu and Kashmir, particularly in the backdrop of the killing of journalist Shujaat Bukhari and the upcoming Amarnath Yatra, scheduled to begin from June 28. “Indications are it is unlikely that the government would favour further suspending operations,” an official said. Rajnath said he would speak on the subject on Sunday. “Let everyone celebrate Eid on Saturday.”EDIT: Murdering a journalistOPED: Kashmir press in perilIn Srinagar, a day after the murder of Bukhari, editor-in-chief of ‘Rising Kashmir’,  the J&K  Police arrested Zubair Qayoom of Saderabal, Srinagar, who had allegedly snatched a pistol from one of the two security officers attached with Bukhari. “With the cooperation of the public, we were able to trace the fourth suspect. The pistol has been found and so have the clothes he was wearing during the attack, which he had dumped,”  IGP (Kashmir Zone)  Swayam Prakash Pani told the media here. “We are probing his role in the killing. Both PSOs (personal security officers) were carrying pistols. One pistol was recovered but the other was missing, which has now been found,” he said.A special investigation team (SIT), led by DIG (Central Kashmir Range) VK Birdi, will further probe the case. The police have already released the CCTV pictures of the three bike-borne militants who sprayed bullets on Bukhari as he stepped out of his office in Press Enclave and boarded a car on Thursday evening.  Their faces covered, one is seen with a bag. “We have leads on the identity of one of the attackers,” said a police officer. “The murder, it appears, was meticulously planned.” While the police see militants’ hand, the Muzaffarabad-based amalgam of Kashmiri militant groups — United Jihad Council (UJC) — and Lashkar-e-Toiba condemned the killing. The UJC chief, Syed Salahuddin, has demanded an international probe. “The killing of Shujaat Bukhari at a time when the UN human rights commission released a report on the  rights abuses raises many questions,” he said.