A group of Bharatiya Janata Party supporters allegedly attacked the home of a journalist in Tripura, The Wire reported on Monday, quoting the Assembly of Journalists.
The incident took place on Saturday night.
The accused, carrying knives, entered the locality where Samir Dhar, the Tripura correspondent for West Bengal newspaper AajKaal, lives. They allegedly vandalised the walls of his house, according to the website. The motive behind the attack is unclear.
Samir Dhar, who is the brother of Bijan Dhar, the Left front convener in Tripura, told The Wire that this was the third attack on his home since 2018.
“The miscreants couldn’t enter inside my house, but they vandalised boundary walls, threatened me, and used bad language,” he said.
The journalist alleged that the BJP supporters also attacked his neighbours’ homes.
The Assembly of Journalists alleged that the attack was “pre-planned and part of a conspiracy”, according to The Wire. They added that such incidents had been on the rise after Chief Minister Biplab Kumar Deb threatened the media at an event last year.
In September, Deb had threatened to take action against certain media houses for allegedly spreading “fake news” about the state’s Covid-19 situation.
“Some newspapers are publishing confusing news related to Covid-19 medical management,” Deb had said. “Neither history will forgive them nor will I forgive them. These media houses and newspapers are spreading fake news and scaring people.”
Samrat Choudhury, the media secretary of the Assembly of Journalists, told EastMojo that 28 journalists across Tripura had faced attacks since the chief minister made the remarks.
Meanwhile, Dhar said that he had filed a police complaint after the attack. “The police visited my house today [Monday] and informed us that an inquiry has begun in this regard,” he told the website.
The BJP has denied that it backed violence in the state. “There are instances when the BJP’s members were also arrested for indulging in political violence,” Nabendu Bhattacharya, the party’s spokesperson in Tripura, told EastMojo. “We will not tolerate political violence in the state. The police has free hand to work and they will do the needful to nab the culprits.”
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