IJU condemns Scribe’s murder in Tripura .... JFA condemns Tripura 10 scribe's murder in 11 months

KalimNews, Hyderabad/New Delhi, November 21: The Indian Journalists Union (IJU) strongly condemned the cold blooded murder of a senior journalist working for Syandan Patrika, a leading Bengali daily of Agartala, Sudip Datta Bhowmik by a jawan of the Tripura State Rifles at R K Nagar, a short distance from Agartala on Tuesday.

He was shot dead by a jawan outside the office of the Commandant of the 2nd Tripura State Rifles (TSR) at RK Nagar, about 20 km from Agartala. He went there to meet the Commandant after obtaining an appointment. The jawan who was on guard duty at the office accosted him and shot him dead before the reporter had the chance to tell that he had an official appointment. He was killed instantly.

In a statement issued on Tuesday, the Indian Journalists Union (IJU) President S N Sinha and Secretary-General Amar Devulapalli condemned the cold blooded murder of Sudip Datta Bhowmik by a jawan of an armed force. They said “he is the second journalist to be killed in the last two months in Tripura. On 20 September Santanu Bhowmik working for a local TV, Din Raat was killed by a mob while covering an agitation of the Indigenous People’s Front of Tripura (IPFT) at Mandai in Khowai district of the state”.  

“We are very much concerned over the murder of two journalists who were discharging their journalistic duty in the last two months sending shivers down the spines of working journalists in the state. The IJU demanded that the state government should take immediate steps to instil confidence among the journalists that they are safe to discharge their duty without fear,” they said.

Sinha and Amar urged the Press Council f India to take suo motu cognizance of the murder of Sudip Datta Bhowmik and take suitable steps to bring the murders of the journalists to the book.  

JFA condemns Tripura scribe’s murder
KalimNews, Guwahati: Journalists’ Forum Assam (JFA) has strongly condemned the repeated murder of scribes in Tripura and urged the Manik Sarkar led government in Agartala to take serious note of the development. The scribe’s forum expressed utter dismay that the tiny State of northeast India has lost one more journalist on Tuesday (21 November 2017) noon. As reported  by the local media outlets, Sudip Dutta Bhowmik, who used to work for a Tripura based Bengali newspaper, was gunned down by the soldiers belonged to the  Tripura State Rifles.  The incident took place  in front of TSR 2nd Battalion office at Khayerpur Bodhjung locality.
“Tripura lost a young journalist (Shantanu Bhowmik) to assailants on September 20 and within two months the State has reported one more journo-murder. It is shocking and the State chief minister, also in charge of home portfolio, must take the call seriously,” said a JFA statement. 
With Sudip’s killing,  India has lost ten  journalists in eleven months of the year. The  largest democracy in the globe earlier witnessed the murder of journalist Rajesh Mishra in Uttar Pradesh on October.  
The string of journo-killings began with Hari Prakash (killed on January 2) and the trend continued with the murders of Brajesh Kumar Singh (January 3), Shyam Sharma (May 15), Kamlesh Jain (May 31), Surender Singh Rana ( July 29), Gauri Lankesh (September 5), Shantanu Bhowmik (September 20) and KJ Singh (September 23).
India is ranked 136th among 180 countries in its RSF’s  World Press Freedom Index (2017), which is just ahead of its neighbors Pakistan (139th), Sri Lanka (141) and Bangladesh (146). The populous country lost six journalists to perpetrators in 2016, which was preceded by five cases in 2015.

“It is alarming that the number of journo-murders has increased drastically this year. The Union government in New Delhi must not buy more time for formulating a strict policy to safeguard the media persons and ensure justice to the victim families,” added the statement issued by JFA president Rupam Barua and secretary Nava  Thakuria.