GENEVA, 8 Aug: Press Emblem Campaign (PEC), the global media safety and rights body, expressed shock over the murder of a journalist in the capital city of Bangladesh and urged the interim regime in Dhaka to nab the killers.
Md Asaduzzaman Tuhin (40), who was associated with Mymensingh-based Bengali newspaper Dainik Pratidiner Kagoj, was hacked to death by some miscreants in Gazipur locality on 7 August evening, the PEC’s South & Southeast Asia representative Nava Thakuria informed.
The journalist was targeted by the assailants when he was sitting at a tea stall in Chandana Chowrasta market. Tuhin died on the spot.
The journalist reportedly recorded visuals from the market, where some extortionists were asking money from the local vendors and they fought among themselves. Tuhin was asked to stop recording, but when he did not respond they attacked him.
“It’s so pathetic that a journalist had to lose his life as he exposed the extortionists in the crowded capital city,” the PEC said.
Earlier, on 25 June, another journalist, Khandaker Shah Alam, was killed in Nabinagar locality of Dhaka by a released prisoner, who was understandably jailed because of Alam’s reporting in Dainik Matrijagat.
“Bangladesh is going for national elections by mid-February next year and the authority must ensure the safety and security of media persons across the South Asian nation,” it said.
“The current regime head Dr Muhammad Yunus has promised a favourable atmosphere for the media fraternity compared to the reign of ousted Bangladesh prime minister Sheikh Hasina. The freedom of journalists should be reflected on the ground,” Blaise Lempen, president of PEC said, adding that the killers of both the scribes must be punished under the law.
Thakuria informed that, besides Tuhin, another Dhaka-based journalist (Anwar Hossain Sourav) was physically assaulted by miscreants in Gazipur’s Sahapara area on the previous day. The young journalist of Dainik Bangladesher Alo is currently undergoing treatment in the hospital.
Tuhin becomes the second Bangladeshi journo-victims since 1 January this year and the 95th media casualty across the world. Days back, radio journalist Erwin Labitad Segovia, was killed in the Philippines, the PEC said.
India lost five media persons – Mukesh Chandrakar, Raghavendra Vajpayee, Sahadev Dey, Dharmendra Singh Chauhan and Chintakayalu Naresh Kumar -to assailants in the first half of 2025, followed by Pakistan with the murder of Allah Dino Shar, Abdul Latif Baloch and Syed Mohammed Shah, and Nepal with the killing of Suresh Rajak during the period, the release said.