A bandh was observed in Bijapur district in south Chhattisgarh on Saturday to protest the killing of senior journalist Sai Reddy on Friday. Shops and business establishments remained closed and traffic was partially off the road as local residents responded to the bandh called by the Bastar Zila Patrakar Sangh.
No arrests Meanwhile, Superintendent of Police Prashant Agrawal said the modus operandi of the killing of the 51-year-old journalist, who was attacked at the weekly market at Basaguda, pointed to Maoists. However, no Maoist pamphlet taking responsibility for the killing was found. Nor has any one been arrested or detained so far.
In continuing protests, six other south Chhattisgarh districts will observe a bandh, the journalists’ association president S. Karimuddin, told The Hindu .
Dantewada will observe a bandh on Monday and the other five on different days in the coming week.
The association has arranged to make an ex gratia payment of Rs. 8 lakh to Reddy’s family.
Referring to the killings of three other journalists in the last three years, Shankar Pandey, president of the Sharmjibi Patrakar Kalyan, said the government “has hardly acted” to resolve Sushil Pathak and Umesh Rajput murder cases. The other, Nemichand Jain 43, was killed earlier this year by Maoists, who later issued an apology under pressure mounted on the outlawed party by journalists, blocking all news related to the rebels.
