by Nava Thakuria
The Press Emblem Campaign (PEC), a global media rights and safety organization, has expressed deep shock over the brutal killing of journalist Md Asaduzzaman Tuhin in Bangladesh’s capital region. The PEC has called upon the interim government in Dhaka to swiftly apprehend those responsible for the heinous crime.
Tuhin, 40, associated with the Mymensingh-based Bengali daily Dainik Pratidiner Kagoj, was attacked and hacked to death by unidentified assailants at Chandana Chowrasta market in Gazipur on the evening of 7 August. According to reports, the journalist was seated at a local tea stall when he was targeted. Severely wounded in the assault, he died on the spot. His body was recovered by Dhaka police and sent for autopsy.
It is believed that Tuhin had recorded visuals of a confrontation involving local extortionists who were demanding money from vendors in the market. When he refused to stop recording despite being warned, he was attacked.
“It is extremely distressing that a journalist had to lose his life simply for exposing extortionists in a busy urban area,” said Blaise Lempen, President of the PEC (www.pressemblem.ch). “Earlier, on 25 June, another journalist, Khandaker Shah Alam, was killed in Nabinagar, Dhaka, by a former prisoner, reportedly jailed due to Alam’s reporting in Dainik Matrijagat. With national elections scheduled for mid-February next year, the authorities must ensure the safety and security of journalists across Bangladesh. The current interim leader, Dr Muhammad Yunus, has pledged a freer environment for the media than under the former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. That commitment must be reflected in real action on the ground. The perpetrators of both murders must be brought to justice.”
PEC’s South and Southeast Asia representative, Nava Thakuria, further reported that another journalist, Anwar Hossain Sourav of Dainik Bangladesher Alo, was physically assaulted by miscreants in Gazipur’s Sahapara area just a day prior to Tuhin’s murder. Sourav is currently undergoing treatment in a hospital.
Tuhin is the second journalist in Bangladesh to be killed this year, and the 95th media worker worldwide to have lost their life since 1 January 2025. In recent days, Filipino radio journalist Erwin Labitad Segovia was also killed. India has witnessed the murders of five journalists—Mukesh Chandrakar, Raghavendra Vajpayee, Sahadev Dey, Dharmendra Singh Chauhan, and Chintakayalu Naresh Kumar—in the first half of the year. Pakistan has lost three journalists—Allah Dino Shar, Abdul Latif Baloch, and Syed Mohammed Shah—while Nepal mourns the killing of Suresh Rajak.
The PEC reiterated its call for global solidarity to protect journalists and uphold press freedom in the face of rising threats.
