Female Journalist Hacked to Death in Bangladesh

A female journalist was hacked to death at the doorstep of her residence in northern Bangladesh’s Pabna district Tuesday night, leading to the arrest of her ex-husband’s father on Wednesday morning, a police official told BenarNews.

Subarna Akter Nodi, 32, a correspondent with Ananda TV and the Jagrata Bangla newspaper, named some of her attackers before dying, Nodi’s mother said.

Morjina Begum filed a murder case with the Pabna Sadar police station on Wednesday, accusing Nodi’s ex-husband, Rajib Hossain, and his father, Abul Hossain, along with several unidentified persons of killing her daughter.

“On the way to the hospital, my daughter told me the names of her assailants. Rajib and his associate were among the assailants, she told me before succumbing to her injuries,” Begum told journalists.

The officer-in-charge of the police station announced that one suspect was in custody.

“We have arrested Rajib’s father Abul Hossain,” Obaidul Huq told BenarNews. “The killing might be a result of family feuds.”

Nodi, the mother of a 6-year-old girl, had filed a case against Rajib Hossain last year under the Women and Children Repression Act alleging that her husband had thrown her out when she refused to pay a dowry from her parents.

Champa Begum said she was verbally abused by Rajib and his associates outside court after she testified against him hours before her younger sister Nodi was killed.

Assailants rang doorbell

Pabna’s Additional Superintendent of Police Ibne Mizan said unidentified men rang Nodi’s doorbell at about 10:30 p.m. Tuesday.

“They stabbed her with sharp weapons indiscriminately as she opened the door and fled the scene, leaving her severely injured,” he said.

Nodi’s mother and neighbors rushed her to Pabna General Hospital where she was declared her dead.

On Wednesday, journalists across the country condemned the killing and demanded that the suspects be brought to justice. Many formed human chains in Pabna and other districts as a sign of protest.

Nasimun Ara Huq, president of the Women Journalists’ Center, said her group would organize another human chain in front of the National Press Club in Dhaka on Thursday.

“The killings are continuing in the country and the victims do not get justice,” she told BenarNews.

In addition, the Bangladesh Federal Union of Journalists and Dhaka Union of Journalists have condemned the killing and will be joining Thursday’s protest.

At least 22 journalists have been killed in Bangladesh since 1996 while 20 of the cases have not reached a conclusion in court. Bangladesh ranked 10th in global impunity index published by the United States-based Committee to Protect Journalists on Oct. 31, 2017.