File picture of Sudip Dutta Bhowmik

In a shocking incident, TSR jawan shot dead a local journalist in Tripura on Tuesday.

A TSR jawan reportedly gunned down journalist Sudip Datta Bhaumik following an altercation with them when he had gone to cover an event at RK Nagar, about 20 kms from Agartala.

“Sudip Datta Bhaumik, a senior journalist with my newspaper, had gone to meet the Commandant of the 2nd TSR at RK Nagar after obtaining due appointment from him. But when he reached there he had an altercation with a PSO of the Commandant outside the latter’s office, during which the PSO shot at him. Sudip died on the spot,” Subal Dey, editor of Syandan Patrika told reporters.

Sudip Datta Bhaumik’s body was later brought to Agartala, while the police have arrested the PSO, a constable of the TSR, Dey said.

The incident took place in the State exactly two months after the murder of another journalist Shantanu Bhowmik, who worked with a local television news channel in Tripura, was beaten to death while covering a clash between the Indigenous People’s Front of Tripura (IPFT) and the Tripura Rajaer Upajati Ganamukti Parishad (TRUGP) in Mandai, in West Tripura, on September 20.

Shantanu, 28, a reporter with Dinraat channel, had gone to Mandai, about 35 kilometres from Agartala, to cover the clash between IPFT and TRUGP, the CPI (M)’s tribal wing.

The brazen killing of journalist Sudip has triggered massive outrage across the State.

ULFA (I) chief Paresh Baruah has condemned the killing of the journalist.

Indian Journalists Union and Journalists Union of Assam have condemned the killing of Sudip Datta Bhaumik.