JFA condemns brutal murder of Tripura journalist

Journalists’ Forum Assam (JFA) strongly condemns the brutal murder of a young scribe in Tripura on Wednesday (20 September 2017) and urges Manik Sarkar led Left government at Agartala to book the culprits under the law.

The initial reports narrate that Shantanu Bhowmik, 29, who was associated with a local news channel faced attacks when he was covering a clash between the Indigenous People's Front of Tripura (IPFT) and Communist Party of India (Marxist)'s tribal wing Tripura Rajaer Upajati Ganamukti Parishad (TRUGP) at Mandai, few kilometer away from Agartala on Wednesday afternoon.

Seriously injured Shantanu was taken to a government hospital, but the attending doctors declared him brought dead. He becomes the seventh Indian victim-journalist this year after the murder of Bengaluru based editor-journalist Gauri Lankesh, 55, on 5 September last.

“Shantanu’s murder reminds the working journalists of northeast India about the insecurity they have to face every day on duty hours.

Shockingly the last incident of journo-killing also took place in Tripura, when three media persons namely Sujit Bhattacharya, Ranjit Chowdhury and Balaram Ghosh were stabbed to death at Agartala in 2013,” said a JFA statement.