Srinagar: In a rather controversial statement BJP leader Choudhary Lal Singh on Friday invoked the killing of senior journalist Shujaat Bukhari and warned Kashmiri journalists to be aware of their conduct.

“These Kashmiri journalists created a wrong narrative about it (the Kathua rape and murder). Now I tell Kashmiri journalists to draw a line on the journalism you do and how you have to live. Do you have to live like what happened to Basharat, so that such a situation emerges,” Singh asked while alleging that the journalists in Kashmir created a wrong narrative in the horrific Kathua rape case.

A former minister in the BJP-PDP (People’s Democratic Party) government in the state, Singh was forced to resign from the cabinet in April following his participation in a rally organised by the Hindu Ekta Manch in January in support of those accused of rape and murder of a young girl in Kathua.

Condemning his statement the Kashmir Editors Guild (KEG) on Saturday said that Lal Singh had invoked Shujaat Bukhari’s murder at a time when police in Srinagar was investigating the case and that his statement indicated that he holds some information about the murder which must be investigated.

“Invoking the brutal assassination of senior editor Shujaat Bukhari, Singh has suggested to the Kashmir media to draw a line and to decide if they have to work the way he (Bukhari) was working. Singh has moved way ahead and issued a direct threat to the media in Kashmir,” the KEG said in a statement.

The Congress party too criticised the statement of the BJP legislator and questioned if the saffron party leaders “have any knowledge of assassination”.

“Shocking and reprehensible! BJP J&K MLA, Lal Singh openly threatens journalists to ‘fall in line and draw a line’. He horrifically says that otherwise, they will meet the fate of Shujaat Bukhari by naming his brother,” Congress leader Randeep Singh Surjewala said in a tweet.

“Do BJP leaders have some special knowledge of the assassination,” the Congress leader asked.