GUWAHATI, Sept 6 - The Journalists� Forum Assam (JFA) has strongly condemned the murder of Bengaluru-based editor-journalist Gauri Lankesh yesterday by unidentified assailants and demanded a high level probe into the incident.
One of the senior journalists and social activists of Karnataka, Gauri was shot dead at her residence in Rajarajeshwari Nagar on Tuesday evening. Gauri, 55, was critical against all kinds of communal forces in the country. She also faced convictions in two defamation cases.
Elder daughter of noted Kannada litterateur-journalist P Lankesh, Gauri used to receive threats from various extreme forces in the recent past, but she never bowed down. Survived by her mother, sister, brother and others, Gauri owned and edited Gauri Lankesh Patrike, a popular Kannada magazine.
The JFA urged the Karnataka Chief Minister and also a senior Congress leader Siddaramaiah, who had already condemned her murder, to take necessary initiatives to nab the culprits at the earliest. The forum also reiterated its demand for a special protection law for the scribes across the country.
�It may be noted that apart from non-physical attacks to silence media, as the year 2017 rolls on, India stands at an awkward position over the journo-murder index, as we have witnessed the murder of six journalists in the last nine months,� said JFA president Rupam Barua and secretary Nava Thakuria.
India lost five journalists to assailants in 2015, which was preceded by two cases in 2014. However, 2013 reported as many as 11 journalists� murder, as three mediapersons (Sujit Bhattacharya, Ranjit Chowdhury and Balaram Ghosh from Tripura) from the North East fell victim to the perpetrators, added the JFA statement.
CPI-M procession: Meanwhile, the State Committee of the CPI-M will take out a procession tomorrow in protest against the killing of journalist Gauri Lankesh in Bengaluru yesterday. The procession will start at 4.30 pm from the Gauhati Club rotary and will culminate near the RBI campus at Panbazar.
