Srinagar: Three persons involved in the killing of veteran journalist Shujaat Bukhari have been identified by the Jammu and Kashmir Police and one of them is escaped Lashker-e-Taiba terrorist Naveed Jatt, a Pakistani national, police officials said here.

Two locals were also identified by the police and are believed to be from one of the villages in south Kashmir. Police were trying to corroborate the evidence from the ground, they said.

The details about the plans to kill Bukhari surfaced during an investigation in one of the recent encounters at Kulgam during which police officials got evidence to suggest that Jatt was in the middle of the motorcycle on which three terrorists were seen on the CCTV footage minutes before gunning down the journalist on June 14, they said.

Jatt, who escaped from the busy SMHS hospital in February 2018, is associated with Lashker-e-Taiba.

They said a Pakistan-based blogger, a resident of Srinagar and now settled there, has also been identified. The blogger had started a hate campaign against Bukhari after he had attended Dubai conference in 2017.

Bukhari, Editor-in-chief of local daily Rising Kashmir, was killed on June 14 by three men outside his office at press enclave here. Two of his PSOs were also killed in the attack.

Hours after the sensational killing, police had released CCTV grabs of the attackers, who were riding a motorcycle. While one of the attackers was wearing a helmet, the other had worn a mask.

While the police has accused Lashker-e-Taiba for killing Bukhari, the terror outfit has denied it.