In Bihar, Journalist attacked, police silent, horror, grief and anger continue, infighting among scribe body

                        On 24 May, 2023, I was attacked with iron rod while I was on way to carry out a follow up story in my local town Motihari in Bihar along with my three other associates.

The incident followed horror, grief and anger. If you've been threatened for doing your job, and a lot of us have, what happened in Motihari brought that terror right back to the surface. 

What do you do when you've faced threats? Does it change how you work? How can you take care of yourself? The day after the attacks, I felt, in this critic situation almost all scribes will stand with me-their senior colleagues and help me to lead me up to justice.

Reason: the severity of attacks on a senior journalists like me in broad day light  and my selfless contributions to the society and nation being a journalist in India’s national news paper like the Hindustan Times, The Indian Nation, The telegraphs and many Hindi language News paper and also in Border News Mirror-a bi-lingual news paper for last 30 years.

Locals staged sit-ins on 30 may, 2023 with  the rush of social activists and common citizens demanding arresting of assailants. Barring few important faces among journalists, most of the scribes found disappeared from dharna sites. Don’t know whether it is due to professional rivalry or those facts in which I would raise through my news papers and through other flat forms I kept.

Instead of sharing some word of consolations, my own colleagues in the field of journalist found engaged in tarnishing my images with the help of some non journalists and other vested interests .I raises many stories on land grabbers, high profile criminals and also white collar criminals . I would lay my helping hand organized crime’s victims and also social activists throughout in my carriers.

The recent stories “illegal vegetable markets” being operated in Chatauni localities- is supposed to be the reason behind this murderous attack on me. We demanded only to crack the stories behind attack after filling a police case against unknown miscreants. One of suspect in the case had old enmity with my family but I can’t claim whether he is involved in the incident or not. Got police assurances to identify culprits, 10 days lapsed but police is still clueless.  We have found the images of assailants from CCTV footage but they are yet to be located.

Local Times of india correspondent and most senior journalist Chandra Bhushan Pandey however, underlines the reason behind startling disappearances and growing dis-unity among journos while severely attacking on Print News paper. In his presidential address, he said situation is that even an editor of a print news paper is attacked; his own news may be disappeared from his own news paper. Only advertisement givers, mafias, corrupt bureaucrats and land brokers are influencing the media houses and representatives and owners of print media houses are only dancing on their tunes, he attacked.

The statements sparked off controversies and draws reactions from various quarters of journalist body. Contrary, representatives of digital media hailed Pandey’s statements and also they honestly carried the stories of this murderous attack. Most of the leading print media did not even take up the stories.  The very next days of Dharna organized to support me, a sorry stories behind shameful ignorance of print media surfaced.

Dharna led by Chandra Bhushan Pandey however became success as a huge numbers of local people from all streams of life turned up. 

As attack was made by unidentified miscreants on running bike, name of a suspect appeared in FIR filed in local police station. And the suspect is reported to be major donor of advertisement in theses print media houses, they chosen only to stay away from any such events in favor of me.

 I was reported that my oppositions are being backed up by almost all corrupts, realtors and some white collar criminals, which stories I carried earlier. Before adopting the profession of journalism, I swore in to become the voice of voiceless and kept adhered to my commitments and finally became targets of these people.  Again pledged, will keep raising public issues and keep sustaining injury until my last breadth.

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