Two unidentified assailants’ killed three employees of a local Bengali daily ‘Dainik Ganadoot’ inside its office in Agartala on Sunday, NDTV reported.
According to police, the motorcycle-borne assailants rushed into the office of the daily at the Palace Compound at about 3pm and stabbed a proof reader and a driver on the ground floor before proceeding to the first floor where they stabbed the office manager.
The three were identified as proof reader Sujit Bhattacharya (32), office driver Balaram Ghosh (40) and office manager Ranjit Chowdhury (60), the police said.
Knifed a number of times each, all the three men were rushed to the hospital where they were declared brought dead, the police said.
Only one reporter was present at the newspaper office ‘Ganadoot Bhawan’ as it was weekly holiday. He fainted on sight after seeing the assailants stabbing the two men on the ground floor and was left unharmed.
The traumatised reporter was undergoing treatment in the same hospital, the police said.
Papia, the six-year old daughter of the driver, who lived in the same compound, said she saw the two assailants repeatedly stabbing her father and Bhattacharya. Afterwards they rushed to the first floor.
‘Dainik Ganadoot’ editor-cum proprietor Sushil Chowdhury, who too lives in the same complex, said he suspected the three were stabbed due to mistaken identity .He himself might have been the target but did not know the reason behind the killings.
Police said the assailants were yet to be identified and a search operation has been launched to apprehend them.
Agartala Press Club has strongly condemned the killing and demanded safety and security to the lives of journalists and employees of newspaper and media houses in the state.
