By NJ Thakuria

Guwahati: Another middle-aged journalist, this time it is in poll-bound Bihar, has lost his life to the perpetuators. Mithilesh Pandey, 40, was shot dead on 25 October 2015 in his hometown under Gaya district. According to the family source, the miscreants (two masked persons) entered the victim’s house on Saturday evening and shot at him to death. Pandey was taken to a nearby hospital by his family members, but he succumbed to injuries after some time.
Journalists’ Forum Assam (JFA) has condemned the incident and reiterate its demand for a national policy for justice to all slain media persons across the country.  The murder of Pandey has increased the tally of slaughtered media persons in India this year till date up to five.
Earlier Hemant Yadav, another middle aged journalist of Uttar Pradesh was shot dead on the night of October 3 at Dheena locality of Chandauli district. Yadav, who worked for Hindi news channel TV24, was attacked by two motorcycle-borne miscreants. He was taken to a nearby hospital where he succumbed to his injuries.
Prior to that, a Thane based journalist Raghavendra Dube was killed by the miscreants in July. Similarly Jagendra Singh from UP and Sandeep Kothari from Madhya Pradesh lost their lives to assassinators in separate incidents in June this year.
We reiterate our demand for a national action plan to safeguard the brave journalists who pursue critical journalism,” said a statement issued by JFA president Rupam Barua and secretary Nava Thakuria adding that the robust Indian media fraternity must rise on the occasion to compel the authority to punish every single murderer of journalists under the rule of law.