(RSF/IFEX) – An underground Maoist organisation has claimed responsibility for the murder of BBC stringer Manik Saha on 15 January 2004. The journalist died instantly when attackers threw a bomb at his rickshaw in Khulna, southwestern Bangladesh. In a letter attributed to the group’s leader, the group also threatened to kill nine other journalists in […]
(RSF/IFEX) – An underground Maoist organisation has claimed responsibility for the murder of BBC stringer Manik Saha on 15 January 2004. The journalist died instantly when attackers threw a bomb at his rickshaw in Khulna, southwestern Bangladesh. In a letter attributed to the group’s leader, the group also threatened to kill nine other journalists in the region.
RSF called on the authorities, in particular the interior minister, to continue to explore every avenue to track down and punish Saha’s killers. The organisation added that it believed the death threats against nine other journalists should be taken very seriously. “Khulna police should do everything possible to protect the nine journalists who are under threat of death,” RSF added. For several years, RSF has denounced the activities of underground Maoist groups in Bangladesh.
In a letter sent to the Khulna regional press club on 22 January, Gaffar Tushar, leader of the Maoist group “The People’s War”, claimed responsibility for murdering Saha, a correspondent for the daily “New Age” and stringer for the Bengali service of the BBC World Service.
“The People’s War”, a dissident faction of the Proletarian Party of East Bengal, has also threatened to kill nine journalists in Satkhira, a city located a few kilometres west of Khulna. The journalists listed include Mizamur Rahman, Kallayan Banerjee, Subash Chowdhury, Ram Krishna, Shahin Goldar, Kazi Dulal, Abul Kalam, Abdul Bari and M. Raju. They are all local Satkhira correspondents for Dhaka-based dailies who have written about the armed group’s illegal activities, extortion in particular. The journalists have all asked for police protection.
A few days earlier, the “Daily Star” newspaper reported that anonymous telephone calls had been made to several Khulna-based journalists, in which Saha was described as an “enemy of the revolution”.
The killing of the journalist prompted a two-day general strike in Khulna on 16 and 17 January. Information Minister Tariqul Islam, who went to the city, promised to do everything possible to find his killers and bring them to justice.
