Tripura bandh over scribe murder total, many injured in clash

FROM A CORRESPONDENT

Agartala, Nov 23: Many activists of different political parties were injured in clashes while normal life was hit in Left ruled Tripura as the BJP, Congress and other parties called a shutdown on Thursday to protest the killing of a jourlist by a Tripura State Rifles (TSR) trooper.

“Around 25 activists of different political parties including BJP and CPI-M were injured following the clashes in various places across Tripura,” a police official said.

Police said around 600 activists of the Bharatiya Jata Party (BJP) and other parties were arrested for picketing in front of government offices in different parts of the state.

Most of the government, semi-government, private offices, educatiol institutions, shops and business establishments were closed due to the strike called by the BJP, the Congress, the Trimool Congress and the Indigenous tiolist Party of Tripura. Banks and fincial institutions were also closed in view of the shutdown, which was opposed by the ruling Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) led Left Front.

All vehicles, except those of security forces, went off the roads. The bandh did not affect flights and train services in and out of Tripura. “The strike was successful and spontaneous,” state BJP President Biplab Kumar Deb said.

Security forces led by senior police officials have been deployed across the state to prevent any untoward incident.

According to police, TSR Second Battalion Rifleman ndu Kumar Reang shot dead Sudip Datta Bhowmik, 50, at Radha Kishore gar, 25 km from Agartala, following an altercation on Tuesday. Reang was the bodyguard of Second Battalion Commandant Tapan Debbarma. The slain jourlist had gone to meet Debbarma at the battalion headquarters. Police have arrested both the trooper and the Commandant. The Chief Judicial Magistrate here sent the duo to 10 days in police custody. The state government, which has handed over the case to the Crimil Investigation Department (CID), also constituted a four-member Special Investigation Team (SIT) to probe the incident.

Bhowmik, who was a reporter with “Syandan Patrika” and television channel “Vanguard”, is survived by his wife, a government teacher, and two children.

Most of the local newspapers left their editorial blank on Thursday with a thick black border to register their strong protest over the killing.

Numerous theories and claims have surfaced regarding the reason behind the jourlist’s killing, the second incident involving a media man in the state. Earlier, 28-year-old TV reporter Santanu Bhowmik was hacked to death while covering an event of a tribal party at Mandai in western Tripura on September 20.

“Syandan Patrikaa” editor and Tripura Newspaper Society President Subal Kumar Dey alleged that his reporter was targeted by the commandant as the former had written many stories against him in the newspaper.

 “It was a pre-planned cold-blooded assassition and they tried to hide the body to destroy evidence. Bhowmik was killed as he had exposed the TSR commandant’s illegal acts,” Dey told the media.

 Police, however, claim Bhowmik had stolen an envelope containing a huge amount of money or some confidential documents from Debbarma’s table while the latter was in the toilet after their meeting in the office chamber.

Tripura Governor Tathagata Roy, who is now in Delhi, has said that he will submit a report to Union Home Minister Rajth Singh on Bhowmik’s killing.

 With the state Assembly polls due in February, the jourlist’s murder has heated up the political atmosphere in the Left ruled state.  The ruling CPI-M criticised the BJP for politicising the killing of the jourlist.

“The ‘bandh’ called by BJP is totally undemocratic. It would hamper normal lives and especially the annual examitions started in schools and ongoing revision of electoral rolls for the next Assembly elections,” CPI-M Central Committee member Gautam Das said. The Congress has demanded a high-level inquiry into the murder. The BJP has demanded the resigtion of Chief Minister Manik Sarkar.

Various jourlists organisations in the northeast including the Tripura Working Jourlists Association, Tripura Jourlists Union (TJU) and the Agartala Press Club have also denounced the killing and demanded a probe. The TJU has also demanded the resigtion of the state Home Minister, a portfolio held by Sarkar. (With IANS input)