Geneva: Press Emblem Campaign (PEC), the global media safety and rights body, today expressed concern over the police inaction to nab the killers of Dhaka-based television journalist Abdul Bari, who was found dead on the bank of Hatirjheel lake in the Gulshan area of the capital city of Bangladesh on June 8, 2022.
Journalist Bari (28), who was associated with the private channel DBC as a news producer, was stabbed by his assassins in his stomach and neck.
Hailing from Sirajganj Sadar, Bari earlier worked for Mohona Television.
“PEC is alarmed at the sharp increase in the number of journalists affected by violence this year, where Ukraine and Mexico emerge as the most dangerous countries in the globe so far. Since the beginning of 2022, at least 65 media workers have paid with lives for doing their job, which is a worrying development,” said Blaise Lempen, president of PEC.
Lempen demanded that Bangladesh Prime Minister Shiekh Hasina should direct the concerned authorities to punish the perpetrators and adequately compensate the bereaved family.
Bari is the second journalist to be killed in Bangladesh this year after the murder of Mohiuddin Sarker Nayeem in Cumilla locality by suspected drug dealers, said Nava Thakuria, PEC’s south Asia representative.
Bangladesh’s eastern neighbour Myanmar witnessed the killing of one scribe (Pu Tui Dim) and its western giant neighbour India lost four journalists (namely Rohit Kumar Biswal, Sudhir Saini, Juned Khan Pathan and Subhash KumarMahato) to assailants on 1 January 2022, he added.
– global bihari bureau
