(RSF/IFEX) – In a 21 August 2000 letter to the chief minister of the Indian State of Manipur, W. Nipamacha Singh, RSF expressed concern over the murder of Thounaojam Brajamani Singh, editor of the daily “Manipur News”. The organisation urged the minister to do everything in his power to establish “the exact motives for the […]
(RSF/IFEX) – In a 21 August 2000 letter to the chief minister of the Indian State of Manipur, W. Nipamacha Singh, RSF expressed concern over the murder of Thounaojam Brajamani Singh, editor of the daily “Manipur News”. The organisation urged the minister to do everything in his power to establish “the exact motives for the murder” and asked to be kept informed of progress in the inquiry. “The journalist had received death threats a few days earlier,” noted Robert Ménard, the organisation’s secretary-general. Finally, RSF recalled that in October 1999, A. Lalrohlu, the editor of another daily published in Manipur, was killed by a group of separatist rebels (see IFEX alert of 15 October 1999).
According to information obtained by RSF, Brajamani Singh, editor of the private daily “Manipur News” in Imphal (Manipur state), and president of the Manipur State Journalists’ Association, was shot dead on 20 August, shortly after leaving the newspaper’s office. Two strangers followed him on a motorcycle and shot him in the head at point-blank range. The killers did not shoot at an employee who was with the editor. No one has claimed claimed responsibility for the murder. Police said that the motive for the crime has not been established, but the editor received anonymous death threats on 15 August. In an editorial published the day before the murder, Brajamani Singh urged the people who had made the threats to either stop or make themselves known.
Brajamani Singh was 68 years old. He is regarded as one of the pioneers of English journalism in the northeast of India.
