Shantanu Bhowmik, Jounalist killed while covering IPFT-TRUGP Clash

Agartala

Shantanu Bhowmik, 28, a journalist with Dinraat news channel, in Tripura was beaten to death while covering a clash between the Indigenous People’s Front of Tripura (IPFT) and the Tripura Rajaer Upajati Ganamukti Parishad (TRUGP) in Mandai, in West Tripura, on Wednesday afternoon.

According to reports, Shantanu had gone to Mandai, about 35 kilometres from Agartala, to cover the clash between IPFT and TRUGP, the CPI(M)’s tribal wing. Even as the police resorted to a lathi charge to disperse the crowd, Bhowmik was attacked by the mob.

“He was first hit on his legs with a stick… when he fell down on the road, they hit him on his head.

The mob later dragged his body and hid it behind the local stadium. It was gruesome,” said a journalist from Agartala. While the incident took place at about 12.30 pm, Bhowmik’s body was later recovered by the police from behind the stadium.

The Tripura Journalists’ Union (TJU) has demanded a CBI inquiry into the incident. The Agartala Press Club and Tripura Working Journalists’ Association (TWJA) are organising a silent funeral procession in Agartala on Thursday.

According to police source four  IPFT members have been arrested in connection with the incident.