The Reporter Who

CONTD. FROM FRONT PAGE

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has left the press fraternity in shock, and his funeral drew droves of journalists, officials, and friends who remembered him as “fair, fearless, and humble.”

“He was a professional par excellence — sharp in his insight, fearless in his analysis, and unwavering in his integrity,” said former journalist Suhail Bukhari, who worked alongside Tariq for years. “In a profession as strained as journalism in Kashmir, his laughter brought rare light. His humour could lift even the heaviest newsroom days.”

Tariq Bhat’s journey into journalism began in the 1990s, when Srinagar was caught in the throes of turmoil. After finishing his postgraduate degree in Mass Communication and Journalism at the University of Kashmir, where a classmate, Mussarat Zia, remembered his “striking resemblance to Abdullah Abdullah, the Afghan foreign minister", Tariq worked briefly with The Indian Express before joining The Week in 2001.

His first assignments took him deep into the countryside, where he wrote about the forgotten corners of the valley. “He loved journalism deeply, not as a career but as a calling,” said one of his former colleagues. “He carried the despair of what journalism in Kashmir was becoming, silently, on his shoulders and in his heart.”