By Matters India Reporter
Geneva, Aug 19, 2023: A global media rights body has condemned the murder of a young journalist in the eastern Indian state of Bihar.
The Press Emblem Campaign (PEC) on August 18 demanded a high-level probe into the incident to unearth the motive behind the assassination of Vimal Kumar Yadav, who was associated with the Hindi newspaper, Dainik Jagran, and punish the perpetrators under the law.
The 38-year-old journalist was shot dead by at least two miscreants August 18 in Prem Nagar area under Raniganj police station. The killers targeted Yadav from a short range and escaped from the place. Yadav was taken to a nearby hospital, but the attending doctors declared him dead. He is survived by his wife, a daughter and a host of relatives. Yadav’s younger brother Shashibhushan was also killed by unidentified gunmen in 2019.
“It’s shocking that a young reporter has been killed by armed miscreants in his own locality. Vimal Kumar Yadav becomes the 34th journalist to be killed this year till date. India has a bad name in delivering swift justice to the bereaved journo-families. We urge Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar to take personal interest to book the culprits and punish them with no impunity,” said Blaise Lempen, president of PEC.
PEC’s south Asia representative Nava Thakuria informed that the Bihar scribe had received threats from some individuals as he pursued the ongoing trials of his brother’s assassination in 2019. Incidentally Yadav was a primary witness to the murder and thus he seemed to be the target of those criminals, said Thakuria, adding that India earlier witnessed the killings of Shashikant Warishe of Maharashtra on February 7 and Abdur Rauf Alamgir of Assam on June 26.
Its neighbours Pakistan lost three journalists (Imtiaz Baig, Jan Mohammed Mahar and Ghulam Asghar Khand) and Bangladesh two scribes (Ashiqul Islam and Golam Rabbani Nadim) to assailants since January 1 this year.