By Our Correspondent

Guwahati: Journalists’ Forum Assam (JFA) expressed shock over the killing of one more scribe in Bihar of central India and reiterated its old demand for a special protection law for the benefit of brave journalists across the country.
According to the local media, unidentified criminals shot dead Dharmendra Kumar Singh at Amra Talaab locality of Sasaram in Bihar’s Rohtash district on 12 November 2016. Singh, who used to work for Hindi daily Dainik Bhaskar, was at a tea stall outside his residence during the morning hours, when three motor cycle-borne assailants fired at him indiscriminately.
Singh, 38, was brought to the hospital, but  succumbed to his injuries on the way. Local journalists suspect that the stone-crusher mafia was involved in the killing as Singh exposed their illegal activities through recent media coverage.
With Singh’s murder, the robust media fraternity of India has lost sixth scribe this year after  Tarun Mishra (Uttar Praedesh), Indradev Yadav / Akhilesh Pratap Singh (Jharkhand), Rajdeo Ranjan (Bihar), Anshita Bawa (Punjab) and Kishore Dave (Gujarat) were silenced by the assailants.
Cautioning Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar to take some visible actions against the murders as his State witnessed the assassination of two scribes this year, the JFA expressed anger that India continues to be one of the most dangerous countries in the globe.
Last year, we lost five journalists namely Jagendra Singh (UP), Sandeep Kothari (Madhya Pradesh), Raghavendra Dube (Maharashtra), Hemant Yadav (UP) and Mithilesh Pandey (Bihar) to the goons,” said a statement issued by JFA president Rupam Barua and secretary Nava Thakuria adding, How may scribes have to die to compel the Union government to formulate a national action plan for safeguarding the media persons in the country.”