Agartala: Tripura journalists on Friday remembered Shantanu Bhowmik (28) who was beaten to death while covering a protest rally called by the Indigenous Peoples’ Front of Tripura demanding separate land ‘Tipraland’ in Mandwai on September 20 2017, around 25 km from state capital Agartala.
Speaking with reporters, senior journalist and secretary of Agartala Press Club, Pranab Sarkar, said, “We have been demanding for justice over the killing of two journalists in Tripura over a span of 60 days but we are yet to get it.”
“Two years ago, on this very same date, Shantanu Bhowmik was brutally murdered by a group of miscreants in Mandwai. After continuous protests by the journalists, the then state government had constituted special investigation team (SIT). But we continued our protest demanding CBI investigation over his killing,” Sarkar said.
Two journalists, Shantanu Bhowmik and Sudip Bhowmik, were brutally killed in the state over a span of 60 days in 2017.
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Shantanu was a reporter of Din-Raat, a local television channel, and was killed while he went to cover an incident at Mandwai, about 30 km from Agartala. Bhowmik was attacked with sharp weapons while covering a road blockade agitation of the IPFT, which is demanding Tipraland — a separate state for the indigenous people of the state.
Later on November 22, 2017, another journalist, Sudip Datta Bhaumik, was shot dead inside Second Battalion of Tripura State Rifles (TSR) at RK Nagar, about 20 km from Agartala.
Bhowmik was a senior reporter and one of the leading protesters working with local Bengali daily Syandan Patrika and local television channel News Vanguard.
