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Tripura CM Manik Sarkar assures fast-track probe, media persons to stage protest
A day after TV journalist Shantanu Bhowmick was hacked to death in Mandwai area of West Tripura district, aggrieved journalists and other media persons would stage a protest march in the state capital today to register their strong protest against "growing incidents of violence and insecurity of media personnel".
By
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New Delhi
Chief Minister Manik Sarkar last night assured a delegation of media persons that his government would do utmost to book those responsible for the dastardly killing of TV journalist Shantanu Bhowmick.
"I cannot give a time frame because investigation is the job of the police, but I can assure you all that no one will be spared and the guilty will be booked," Mr Sarkar told the delegation.
He said in view of violence spreading across many parts of the state especially in the districts of Khowai and West Tripura, the priority of the state police would be to prevent the situation from escalating further.
The angry journalists told the Chief Minister that yesterday's incident could not be taken as a stray incident as journalists and TV cameramen were attacked in the past as well.
"Even there are reports and video footage that Bhowmick was attacked in presence of policemen. Immediate actions must be taken against those police personnel," a senior journalist told the Chief Minister and also state DGP AK Shukla.
The journalists' delegation under the aegis of Tripura Working Journalists' Association also met Governor Tatagatha Roy and said if necessary he should make use of his good office and recommend a CBI inquiry into the killing of 27-year-TV journalist Bhowmick.
Several journalists and members of the Association have complained that even till now no arrest has been made and 11 people have been taken into "preventive detention".
The DGP AK Shukla also told the journalists that a proper inquiry will be held at the earliest and the guilty will not be spared.
The attack on journalist Bhowmick was allegedly carried out by 'unidentified' persons of rival factions of tribal groups when he was deputed near Mandwai to cover the road blockade by the Indigenous People's Front of Tripura.
The tribal group is demanding creation of a separate state.
Police sources told UNI in Agartala that the deceased had sustained serious injuries and was with serious stab wounds on his shoulder and head and when he was rushed a hospital in Agartala, doctors declared him brought dead.
Tripura Information Minister Bhanulal Saha also visited the hospital yesterday.
Tension prevailed in several parts of the state especially across five sub-divisions in two districts of Khowai and West Tripura.
Police sources said a group of tribals protested the "manner Bhowmick" was discharging his duties as he "allegedly worked for a pro-CPI(M) TV channel Din-Ratri".
The violence have erupted in the state in the wake of protest by the Ganamukti Parishad, the tribal wing of the ruling CPI-M who are irked over the Indigenous People's Front of Tripura insisting for creation of a separate tribal homeland to be carved out in the state.
Political mudslinging have already started between BJP, which is making a serious foray into the state, and the CPI(M).
ITFT chairman N C Debburman has also meanwhile said there should be a proper probe into the killing of journalist Bhowmick.
He said the CPI(M) leaders in the state are only indulging in politics and trying to blame the tribal organisation for the violence.
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