KREERI, Kashmir — This morning, I buried my friend and fellow journalist, Shujaat Bukhari, the editor of Rising Kashmir, a local daily that has never given up on its quest for peace in this war-torn place we call home. Amid family and friends, we lowered his body into the ground and bade him farewell forever, surrounded by vast apple orchards and lush green mountains in his ancestral village of Kreeri, in northern Kashmir.

I was one of the last to see Mr. Bukhari alive, as I headed home Thursday evening from work in Srinagar, the capital of the Indian-administered part of Kashmir. As I walked down a busy road, he drove past me, waving and smiling.

Less than half an hour later, unidentified assailants on a motorcycle shot Mr. Bukhari, 50, multiple times in the abdomen and head, killing him and wounding his two bodyguards.

For us younger journalists, he was a mentor and a friend who never failed us. Our community of journalists has suffered decades of threats and intimidation from militants and Indian forces alike. But Mr. Bukhari’s unfailing optimism was always something we aspired to, and it kept us going. If he could remain hopeful after decades covering one of the world’s most grueling conflicts, we all could.