Following the death of Manik Saha ,a journalist for the daily New Age and Sangbad and stringer for the Bengali service of the BBC World Service , who was killed when a home-made bomb was thrown at him at Khulna ,journalists in the South -West region in Bangladesh feel insecured and threatened. As tributes were paid to the late journalist,his colleagues expressed their horror at the situation. The State Minister of Home Affairs , however , claims that despite all these the situation is not "horrific."
Eight journalists have been killed in this part of Bangladesh in the past seven years. He is the first journalist in the world to be murdered in 2004.
Saha died instantly when the bomb was thrown by unknown assailants who stopped the rickshaw in which he was returning home from covering a meeting of the opposition Awami League, via the press club of which he was president for several years. He was decapitated by the bomb. The bombers managed to escape but several people witnessed the attack. Police were called but made no immediate statement.
Reporters Without Borders and the Bangladesh Centre for Development, Journalism and Communication (BCDJC) both expressed their horror at the murder of Saha. The two press freedom organisations called on the government, in particular the interior ministry, to take all possible steps to investigate the killing and punish the perpetrators.