Singhaniya's murder

The cold-blooded murder of Arun Singhaniya, publisher of Janakpur Today and owner of Radio Today, has left not just Janakpur but the entire nation in a state of shock. The courage and conviction with which Janakpur Today and Radio Today pursued journalism have earned them vast popularity and a huge following in the region. It´s a great loss to the Today Media Group that two of its prominent figures were killed in a span of just over a year. Uma Singh, a young and courageous journalist who used to work for Radio Today, was murdered little more than a year ago. But the threat to the media group doesn´t seem to stop there -- editor of Janakpur Today, Brij Kumar Yadav, has also received a warning, perhaps from the same criminal group, that he could lose his life within a week.



We condemn the Singhaniya murder in the strongest of terms and ask the home administration to provide immediate security to the media group and its journalists. Any further assault on journalists working there will be proof of just how dysfunctional the security agencies have become. Whether the police are able to bring Singhaniya´s assailants to book will be another measure of their competence. If the real murderers of Uma Singh had been put behind bars, it would have sent out the message that you cannot kill journalists and escape justice. Police failure to nab those who murdered Jamim Shah in Kathmandu city must also have emboldened Singhaniya´s killers. This trend cannot and should not continue or else many journalists, especially in the districts, will feel hard pressed to think twice before fulfilling their duty.



The security situation in the Tarai has become generally nightmarish. From professionals to business persons to members of the general public, they all live under constant terror because of the mushrooming of criminal groups. These groups initially targeted people of hill origin but as many of these migrated to other districts the criminals have turned to the locals for ransom and killings. Criminals are criminals and they don´t have any caste or ethnicity, nor do they care about it, while committing their crimes. The government has implemented a Special Security Plan (SSP) to tackle such criminals head on. For a few months the plan seemed to be working well but in recent days there have been growing complaints (mostly concerning fake encounters). Cases such as Singhaniya´s killing only highlight why the Tarai still needs an effective SSP. Blanket opposition of the SSP or its excessive use (for killing or torturing innocent people) will only weaken security in the Tarai and encourage crime, murder and mayhem there.

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