3 newspaper employees killed in Tripura, "strike" tomorrow to protest murders

Agartala, May 20, 2013 [IANS] ---Opposition parties have called a 12-hour shut-down in Tripura Tuesday to protest the killing of three newspaper employees who were murdered at their office here, a Congress leader said. The three employees of 'Dainik Ganadoot', a vernacular daily were killed by unidentified assailants Sunday. "Chief Minister Manik Sarkar must resign owning moral responsibility to this barbaric crime. Congress has called a 12-hours strike in and around the Agartala city Tuesday to protest the incident," Congress spokesman and party legislator Asish Saha told reporters Monday. Ruling Communist Party of India-Marxists (CPI-M) has also asked the government run by the party to probe the incident and nab the culprits. Sarkar, who holds the home profolio, condemned the incident and asked police chief Sanjay Sinha to take appropriate actions to book the criminals. Tripura Pragatishil Gramin Congress, a breakaway faction of the Congress, has also called a dawn-to-dusk state-wide strike Tuesday to protest the killing. Information Minister Bhanu Lal Saha, Tripura Pradesh Congress chief Sudip Roy Burman, opposition leader Ratan Lal Nath and host of other leaders have also condemned the incident. According to the police, two armed assailants Sunday came by a motorcycle and barged into the office of 'Dainik Ganadoot'. They stabbed to death, proof reader Sujit Bhattacharjee, 32, and seriously wounded manager Ranjit Chowdhury, 60, and driver Balaram Ghosh, 40, both of whom died on way to hospital. The editor-cum-proprietor of 'Dainik Ganadoot', Sushil Chowdhury, who lives in the same building, told police that the assailants allegedly wanted to kill him but they killed the manager in a case of mistaken identity. Police alerted all the police stations across Tripura, Border Security Force deployed along the India-Bangladesh borders and security forces posted at the airport to step up vigil so that the killers could not escape from the state. The state is surrounded by Bangladesh on three sides.