Newspapers in Manipur have decided to suspend publication from Saturday after unidentified gunmen shot at and critically injured a senior journalist in state capital Imphal Thursday morning.
The incident took place at the Uripok Bachaspati Leikai area shortly after 8 am when three armed men came on a two-wheeler and pumped in three bullets on Ratan Luwangcha, bureau chief of Manipuri daily Poknapham when he was browsing through the morning papers outside his residence, the Imphal Free Press reported.
Luwangcha, 40, suffered two bullet injuries. One bullet passed through his abdomen while the other passed through the left thigh. He was operated upon at Shija Hospital. The bullet that hit his abdomen near his navel and exited after piercing the hip plate, ruptured his small intestine in six places and his colon at one.
The reason behind the shooting is yet to be ascertained. No militant group has yet claimed responsibility for the shooting, local journalists said.
Shocked journalists in Imphal staged a protest rally wearing black ribbons in the town later on Thursday, and submitted a memorandum to Chief Minister Okram Ibobi Singh urging him to ensure adequate protection for the journalist fraternity in the state.
On Friday, the All-Manipur Working Journalists' Union (AMWJU) and the Editor's Forum, Manipur (EFM) began a protest sit-in demonstration in the Keishampat area. Incidentally, Luwangcha is himself the general secretary of AMWJU.
AMWJU/ EFM also announced that all newspapers in the state would suspend publication from Saturday in protest against the attack on Luwangcha. All newspapers carried blank editorials on Friday. The non-publication of newspapers will continue till a further decision in this regard is taken. AMWJU/EFM have also asked all militant organisations in the state to issue a clarification within 48 hours. They said if a group failed to issue a clarification, its press handouts would be blacked out.
The staff and management of Poknapham decried the incident, and demanded a clarification from the group which had carried out the attack. The All-Naga Students Association, Manipur said the attack should be condemned by all, and termed it as a barbaric act. All-Manipur Students Union (AMSU) described the attack as an act of terrorism and urged those responsible to state the reason for doing so.
The Director of the Asian Centre for Human Rights, Suhas Chakma, condemned the attack, and said, "It is a dastardly act of terrorism to silence flow of information and intimidate the journalists for doing their tasks in Manipur. The government must take all necessary measures to bring the perpetrators to justice and provide much needed security to protect the journalists."
Newspapers in the state had suspended publication for a few days in late October last year in protest against frequent meddling by militants in the functioning of media organisations. The newspapers did resume publication two days later, but also resolved not to yield to threats of militant organsations.
AMWJU, EFM, and representatives of various students' organisations, women's organisations, and nongovernmental organisations had met in Imphal and passed three resolutions at the end of the deliberations. The meeting had resolved that no group or individual should be allowed to coerce newspapers to publish any statement of theirs. The meeting resolved that journalists would try to correctly inform the people about incidents. Lastly, the meeting resolved to jointly fight all threats issued against newspapers.
On October 13, 2002, armed men shot dead television journalist Yambem Meghajit Singh in Imphal. Singh, who worked on the audio-visual production company North East Vision's weekly programme, was killed after being tortured by armed men. He was found with his hands tied behind his back and his body was covered with bruises.
On 20 August, 2000, Thounaojam Brajamani Singh, editor of the daily Manipur News and president of the Manipur State Journalists' Association, was shot dead by two strangers. Brajamani was with another media employee when he was shot at point blank range. The perpetrators did not attempt to shoot or harm the other person. While the police have not yet identified a motive for the murder, Brajamani had received anonymous death threats earlier. A day prior to his murder, he urged "the people who had made the threats to either stop or make themselves known" in an editorial.
