Many hours later my office assured me that the staff in Srinagar is well insured. I was updating my story with fresh quotes from the hospital when nearly every known friend and relative from across the globe called me to know what happened and if I was all right. But the most disturbing call was from someone in Delhi asking me if I could find anything about Pradeep. I burst into tears, my voice choked at the thought that perhaps his family members were not aware that he was already dead. I remembered just five years ago, my photographer, Mushtaq Ali died in a parcel bomb blast, three days after covering another blast in the same area in which more than a dozen people were killed.
Journalists working in Kashmir face some of the most dangerous conditions.
There are eight journalists among the more than 30,000 people killed in the decade old separatist violence in Kashmir. Dozens have been injured and journalists say the going is getting increasingly tough. Militants have flung grenades at the offices and houses of journalists. Since 1989, the government has brought several sedition charges against Kashmiri newspapers that are covering Kashmir imbroglio. But I and my fraternity still move on, from one ghastly report to another.