Probe Tripura scribe’s death, urges CPJ

New York, Sept 22: The Committee to Protect Journalists, which has been set up to safeguard the interests of scribes worldwide, has urged Indian authorities that they conduct a probe into the death of Santanu Bhowmik, a reporter for Bengali-language Dinraat news channel, and bring those responsible to justice. News reports and a journalist eyewitness said Bhowmik was beaten to death with sticks on September 20 while covering violent clashes between members of the separatist Indigenous People’s Front of Tripura and the ruling Tripura Rajya Upajati Ganamukti Parishad in the northeastern state near the border with Bangladesh. The crowd hit Bhowmik on his legs and then his head. According to authoritative accounts, Bhowmik was taking pictures with his mobile phone when the crowd attacked him. Swapan Chakraborty, an editor at Dinraat, told CPJ that the last image they received from Bhowmik was sent at 1:15pm. Police later recovered his body near a stadium. West Tripura police superintendent Abhishek Saptarishi said his officials arrested four people in connection with the Bhowmik death, and charged them with murder and unlawful assembly. “This is a very serious matter, and we are going to give due importance to the case,” Saptarishi told the New York-based journalists’ body. At least 41 journalists have been killed in India in relation to their work since 1992, according to research done by CPJ. “Authorities must thoroughly investigate the motive behind the murder of Bhowmik, who was killed while on assignment,” Steven Butler, CPJ’s Asia program coordinator said in a statement released yesterday. UNI