Assam journalists demand justice

The journalist fraternity of Assam has implemented a series of protest programmes against the killing of editor and journalists in various parts of the trouble torn State. The media persons under the banner of Journalists Action Committee, Assam had demonstrated in the city streets on April 2, when they took out a protest rally from Guwahati Press Club and culminated in the same location after a brief meting.

The committee has also decided to submit a memorandum to the visiting Indian President Pratibha Devising Patil. Referring to the killing of Anil Majumder, editor of Aji on March 24 night in Guwahati, the memorandum revealed that even after Assam had lost over 20 editor-journalists in the last two decades, ‘none of the culprits has so far been brought to book’.

The others include Kamala Saikia, Deepak Swargiary, Kundarmal Agarwala, Manik Deuri, Prarag Kumar Das, Ratneswar Sarma Shastri, Nurul Haque, Jogesh Uzir, Dineswar Brahma, Girija Das, Monikan Das, Ranbir Roy, Prahlad Gowala, Maslimuddin, Bodosa Narzary, Jagajit Saikia.

It also added, “Attending late Majumder’s last rites ceremony at the Navagraha Cremation Ground, Guwahati on March 25-----, AICC leader Chandan Bagchi and State Cabinet Ministers Bhumidhar Barman and Akon Bora publicly announced a three-day deadline within which the Government would nab the killers.” But the police is yet to get any breakthrough in the case.

Meanwhile, the action committee has planned to file a Public Interest Litigation in Gauhati High Court demanding a high level inquiry into the killings of journalists in the State. It emphasizes that all the killer and perpetrators should be booked under the law. The committee also insists that the journalists in particular and the people in general have the moral right to know about the motifs behind all the killings.