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Burhaan Kinu
Burhaan Kinu

Burhaan Kinu, a Kashmiri photo-Journalist has won prestigious Indian award for his outstanding work in Journalism.

Kinu is a staffer at The Hindustan Times and works from New Delhi.

He has been awarded the Ramnath Goenka Excellence in Journalism Award for 2015 in the Photojournalism category.

Kinu’s photographic coverage of the aftermath of the lynching of Mohammad Akhlaq on September 29, 2015, at Dadri in Uttar Pradesh, 40 km from New Delhi has won him this award.

At a function in New Delhi on Wednesday, he will receive the award from Prime Minister Narendra Modi who will give away awards across 28 categories for exceptional work in print, broadcast and online journalism in English, Hindi and regional languages.

The Ramnath Goenka Excellence in Journalism Awards recognise excellence in journalism and showcase outstanding contributions by individuals each year.

In both the size of the award and its scope, these are the largest news media awards in India.

Kinu, a Commerce graduate, did not formally study photo-journalism.

Mohammad Akhlaq of Dadri
Mohammad Akhlaq of Dadri (HT Image: Burhaan Kinu)

To tell the untold stories of Kashmir, Kinu told Kashmir Life over phone from New Delhi, “I was inspired to join photo-journalism.” He worked started working as Photo-Journalist in 2006 and joined Kashmir Observer, KNS and also worked a freelancer with London based Demotix – a wire photo-news agency.

In 2011, he shifted to New Delhi and in February 2012, he joined The Hindustan Times where he is presently working as Senior Photo-Journalist. He covers National Capital Region (NCR) for the Delhi based reputed news organization.

Family of Mohammad Akhlaq of Dadri. (HT Image: Burhaan Kinu)
Family of Mohammad Akhlaq of Dadri. (HT Image: Burhaan Kinu)

“My work has been published Time, Huffington Post, BBC World and Getty Images, among others,” he writes in his profile published on his blog. “

The room where Mohammad Akhlaq of Dadri lived. (HT Image: Burhaan Kinu)
The room where Mohammad Akhlaq of Dadri lived. (HT Image: Burhaan Kinu)

“Some of my other photographic projects have been the documentation of a leprosy camp near Srinagar, a school for special children in Noida and the traditional art of mud-wrestling, to name a few. My work was also chosen as one of the 52 best photographs worldwide by Huffington Post in December 2013. I was interviewed by a researcher at Brown University, USA, for my work on conflict zones and photojournalism in Kashmir, with a special focus on my coverage of the teenager Showkat Ahmad’s death and the ensuing controversy. In October 2014, my work was exhibited and featured in University of Wisconsin’s (Madison), South Asia conference, Kashmir Studies panel, where eminent scholars and writers on Kashmir discussed my representation of Kashmir’s people and politics done through a series of photo essays.”

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