India

Journalist killed in North-East India

A Tripura based journalist Santanu Bhowmik was hacked to death while covering an IPFT agitation

Agartala: A journalist working with a local TV news channel, Dinrat, in Agartala was on Tuesday abducted and allegedly hacked to death in West Tripura district.

Bhowmik was covering an agitation and road blockade by the Indigenous People’s Front of Tripura (IPFT) when he was attacked, the police said.

According to Hindustan Times, the journalist was found with serious stab wounds and was rushed to a government hospital, where doctors declared him dead on arrival.

State police superintendent Abhijit Saptarshi said that more than a dozen officers were also injured in the fracas and tensions remained high in the troubled region, the report said. Prohibitory orders were imposed and more forces were rushed to contain sporadic violence.

No arrests have been made in connection with the reporter’s death yet, but four people were detained on separate charges related to the political violence, Saptarshi said.

The clashes began when supporters of the Ganamukti Parishad, a tribal wing of the ruling CPM, gathered at a bus stand in Khowai town to travel to Agartala for a rally, Hindustan Times reported.

The IPFT workers attacked the rivals with sticks and iron rods and wounded at least 60 of them and damaged at least 15 buses, the report said.

India was ranked the deadliest country in Asia for journalists by Reporters Without Borders in 2015. The killing of Bhowmik comes just a fortnight after another high profile murder of journalist Gauri Lankesh.

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