Tripura bids mournful farewell to slain jourlist

From a correspondent

Agartala, Sept 21: The jourlist fraternity and a large number of people gathered to bid a mournful farewell to the slain jourlist Shantanu Bhowmik on Thursday.  Many of his colleagues broke down to tears when his body was brought to the Agartala Press Club from G B Hospital to pay floral tribute. Power Minister Manik Dey and many other leaders cutting across political line came to pay tribute to the departed jourlist.

Later his body was taken to his residence at Jirania. The Deputy Speaker of the State Assembly, Pabitra Kar accompanied the funeral procession.   The 23-year-old Shantanu was hacked to death by a mob on Wednesday when he was covering agitations by the Indigenous Peoples’ Front of Twipra (IPFT) at Mandai in West Tripura district. They were protesting against the alleged destruction of some of the IPFT flags by the CPI (M) supporters.

Police has already arrested two persons Bikash and Shyamal Debbarma for their suspected involvement in the incident. A 12-hour bandh was observed in Jirania area by the CPI (M).  Tension was prevailing in the area for the last three days and sporadic incidents of clashes were reported between the supporters of the CPI (M) and the IPFT, injuring over one hundred people including several police personnel.

Tension gripped the adjoining areas after the report of the killing of a jourlist spread and the administration had to take preventive steps to take control of the situation. Assam Rifles jawans were called to patrol in the disturbed areas.

Meanwhile, report of clashes came from many other areas of the Jirania and Khowai sub-divisions where several people including police personnel sustained injuries. Section 144 has been imposed in many areas. The killing of the Santanu Bhowmik caused serious anger among the jourlists in Agartala, who resorted to a road blockade demanding immediate arrest of the perpetrators.

N C Debbarma, president of the IPFT condemned the killing of the jourlist and demanded arrest of the persons involved in the incident.