In a bizarre incident, a personal guard of the commandant of a Tripura State Rifles (TSR) battalion on Tuesday shot dead a journalist inside the TSR headquarters in Agartala, raising concern over the security of working journalists in the region.
Agartala-based senior journalist Sudip Dutta Bhowmik, who used to work for local news daily Syandan Patrika was shot at by one Nandagopal Reang, personal guard of Commandant of TSR’s Second battalion Tapan Debbarma.
The slain journalist’s relatives and his colleague said that Sudip had gone to meet the commandant today at the TSR second battalion headquarters at RK Nagar around 12 noon.
“During the conversation the commandant had gone to the toilet attached to his office and returned after sometime but only to find some important document missing from his table. The commandant later accused Sudip of stealing the documents and called his personal guard to search Sudip. A heated altercation followed as Sudip protested against the search. The personal guard of the commandant later shot Sudip with his official weapon,” said the family members while adding that although he was taken to hospital he breathed his last on the way.
This is the second incident of killing of journalist in Tripura within a span of two months. On September 20 this year, Agartala based television journalist Santanu Bhowmik was stoned and hacked to death by a gang of IPFT goons at Mandai while covering a political programme of the ruling party and resistance put up against this by unruly elements of Indigenous Peoples’ Front of Tripura (IPFT).
Police only said that the personal guard of the commandant was arrested and official weapon was seized. “We have registered a case and investigation is on to ascertain the circumstances leading to the killing,” said a police officer.
Journalists’ Forum Assam (JFA) 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.
“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 very much shocking and frustrating. The State chief minister, also in charge of home portfolio, must take his call with sincerity,” said a JFA statement.
Meanwhile, the BJP has called a twelve hour Tripura ‘bandh’ on Thursday (November 23) to protest the killing of Sudip as well as to protest the deteriorating law and order situation in the state. The party also termed the killing as a ‘cold-blooded murder’ and said that there was no safety and security of life of people in Tripura and things needed to be handled on a firm footing.