(RSF/IFEX) – RSF has expressed deep shock at the attempted murder of Sajid Rashid, editor of the Hindi-language edition of the daily “Mahanagar”. Rashid was stabbed twice in the back on the evening of 24 August 2004, in Mumbai (formerly Bombay). The organisation called on the Maharashtra state authorities to take all necessary measures to […]
(RSF/IFEX) – RSF has expressed deep shock at the attempted murder of Sajid Rashid, editor of the Hindi-language edition of the daily “Mahanagar”. Rashid was stabbed twice in the back on the evening of 24 August 2004, in Mumbai (formerly Bombay).
The organisation called on the Maharashtra state authorities to take all necessary measures to identify and arrest those responsible for the attack and to protect the staff of “Mahanagar”, which has come under attack twice in the past three months.
If it is confirmed that Rashid was targeted for defending free expression, the attack poses a disturbing threat to all independent news media in Mumbai, RSF added.
Rashid was attacked by two men who approached him in the evening not far from the newspaper’s offices. Nikhil Wagle, the editor of “Mahanagar”’s Maratha-language edition, said one of the men asked Rashid if he was “the one who had insulted the Koran,” and the other then stabbed him.
Rashid, who is also vice-president of the organisation Muslims for Secular Democracy, wrote about the issue of free expression in Islam in June, causing anger in Muslim fundamentalist circles in Mumbai. Since then he has been receiving anonymous threats. He filed a complaint but the police did not investigate. It was only after he was attacked that the police decided to give him protection.
“Mahanagar” has been the target of violence by both Hindu nationalists and Muslim fundamentalists, with the former accusing the newspaper of being “pro-Muslim and “anti-nationalist, and the latter accusing it of blaspheming Islam.
Three “Mahanagar” journalists were physically attacked when the newspaper’s offices were stormed by members of the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on 29 June, but the police made no arrests (see IFEX alert of 6 July 2004). There have been five other violent attacks on the newspaper since it was founded, but to date no one has been brought to trial.
