Biling, a correspondent based in Amargarh for two newspapers in Punjab, namely Azdi Awaz and Daily Ajit, was reportedly apprehended by the police while traveling by bus to Jalandhar. Despite officials' denial of the arrest, it was reported that Biling, who was also a human rights activist, was seen in custody by village elders. While the police did not acknowledge his detention, there are suspicions that he died while in custody.
Singh was a reporter for the Punjabi newspaper Hind Samachar, based in Dhuri, India. He was assassinated by unidentified individuals. The reason behind the attack remains uncertain.
On 18 May 1992, M.L. Manchanda, the director of the All India Radio station located in Patiala, was abducted by members of the militant organization Babbar Khalsa. This group demanded that the electronic media adhere to a specific code of conduct, which included broadcasting in the local Punjabi language instead of Hindi. Despite negotiations for Mr. Manchanda’s release, the government failed to comply with Babbar Khalsa’s demands within the deadline set by the group. Consequently, on 27 May 1992, the militants beheaded Mr. Manchanda, a journalist, in a brutal act that shocked the nation.
Masoom, a journalist associated with Hind Samachar and serving as the president of the Punjab and Chandigarh Journalist's Council, was fatally shot by two suspected militants in the vicinity of his residence located in Rajpura, India. The incident occurred on an unspecified date, and Masoom succumbed to his injuries on the same day.
Lone, a newspaper salesman and freelance journalist who had received death threats for his coverage of troop movements in Kashmir, was shot and killed along with his seven-year-old son by a group of masked gunmen, with the Srinagar police attributing the killings to Kashmiri separatists.
On September 7, a letter bomb addressed to a journalist in Srinagar exploded in the hands of Ali, a photographer for Agence France-Presse and a camera operator for Asian News International, causing severe injuries that led to his death three days later.
The death of Sheikh, the editor of Rehnuma-e-Kashmir and Saffron Times, who had reported on violence in Pampore, and whose body was found floating in Kashmir's Jhelum River, has been attributed by his family members to a militia group allegedly supported by Indian state security forces, which had reportedly kidnapped him in March.
Parag Kumar Das, editor-in-chief of the Asomiya Pratidin and a leading voice for self-rule for Assam who had continued reporting on separatist perspectives despite previous arrests, was assassinated in Guwahati while picking up his son from school; his colleagues believe that his recent interview with the leader of the separatist United Liberation Front of Assam may have led to his assassination by a splinter group, and he was also known for his work monitoring human rights abuses by the army and counterinsurgency forces against the Assamese.
Faktoo, a journalist and news anchor for the state-owned Doordarshan television station in Srinagar, Kashmir, was assassinated by militant separatists who had previously threatened him due to his pro-government news reporting and work with the state-owned broadcast media; he was also previously kidnapped and detained by a militant group in 1994.
Shafi, a reporter for Doordarshan TV, was killed in an ambush in Srinagar, Kashmir while working on two news programs, "Kashmir File" and "Eyewitness," with his personal security guard also being fatally shot; his reporting on "Kashmir File" that criticized militant Kashmiri separatists had reportedly led to threats from separatists who accused him of biased reporting.
A car bomb explosion outside Rama Naidu Studios in Hyderabad killed five members of a television crew, including Gangadhara Raju, an E-TV cameraman, Jagadish Babu, a producer for private channel E-TV, Srinivas Rao and S. Krishna, assistant cameramen for E-TV, and Raja Sekhar, an assistant for E-TV, along with their driver and at least 17 others, while covering the making of a film; the attack is believed to have been politically motivated, targeting the film's producer, Paritala Ravi, a former guerrilla leader and member of the governing Telugu Desam party.
Bhatnagar, a special correspondent for the Indian Express, was found dead in her apartment in East Delhi. Bhatnagar was strangled and stabbed in the neck and abdomen. While her killers were not identified, early reports speculated that they may have been seeking certain incriminating documents, although police did not find robbery to be a likely motive.
Hussain, a cartoonist for Outlook magazine, was found dead on the side of a highway in Delhi with his hands and feet bound, throat slit, and having been stabbed 28 times and strangled. His murder was allegedly linked to his satirical cartoons mocking leaders of the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party, and a threatening phone call from someone claiming to be a member of the Shiv Sena, a Hindu nationalist political organization, was reportedly made to the wife of another cartoonist prior to Hussain's murder.
Lalruhlu, an editor of the Hmar-language newspaper Shan, and three others were killed in an attack by suspected separatist militants in Manipur, India. The Hmar Revolutionary Front claimed responsibility for the killings, stating that Lalruhlu was not targeted for his journalism, but because of his involvement with a rival militant group, highlighting the ongoing separatist and ethnic violence in the region.
Rai was a freelance journalist and president of the Deoghar Working Journalists Union, who was murdered while on assignment. The Hindu, an English-language newspaper, reported on the incident and also mentioned that Rai was a lecturer at a local college.
Selvaraj, a journalist for the Tamil-language biweekly Nakkeeran, was killed by a group of about a dozen men in his hometown of Perambalur, Tamil Nadu. He suffered over 20 serious wounds from knives and sickles, and his death may have been related to his reporting on government corruption in Tiruchi. The Crime Branch Central Investigation Department was investigating the case, but no major developments had been reported by the end of the year.
In August 2000, a bomb attack in the Kashmir capital, Srinagar killed at least 12 people, including Bhatia, a photographer for The Hindustan Times, and injured six other journalists. Hezb-ul Mujahedeen, a militant Kashmiri separatist group, claimed responsibility for the attack targeting Indian security forces.
Brajamani, the founder of Manipur News and a well-known journalist in Manipur State, India, was assassinated in the capital city of Imphal while riding his scooter home. He was shot twice in the back of the head by two men who forced him to stop on the road, according to sources.
Yadav was a freelance reporter who frequently wrote for Hindi-language newspapers such as Jansatta and Punjab Kesari. He was assassinated on a Jhansi street in Uttar Pradesh allegedly due to his investigative reporting on local corruption that angered two influential landowners, according to colleagues.
In April 2002, crime reporter Pandey, who worked for the Hindi-language daily Jansatta Express, was shot and killed at his home in Lucknow. While it is likely that Pandey was targeted due to his reporting on criminal gangs, the specific motive behind his murder remains unclear.
In the city of Imphal, located in India's conflict-ridden Northeast region, Meghajit, a chief correspondent for Northeast Vision, was found dead in his home after being beaten with bamboo sticks and shot in the head. While no group has claimed responsibility for the murder, some journalists speculate that it may have been related to Meghajit's involvement in the semiprecious stone trade.
Chaterpatti, an editor of Hindi-language newspaper Poora Sach, died from injuries sustained in an assassination attempt in Sirsa, Haryana on October 24, 2016. The alleged gunman and a leader of the Sirsa-based religious sect Dera Sacha Sauda were among three suspects arrested, with officials stating that members of the group ordered Chaterpatti’s murder due to the journalist’s reporting on sexual abuse and other crimes allegedly committed at the group’s compound. In January 2019, a special court in Haryana convicted four individuals of Chaterpatti's murder and criminal conspiracy, sentencing them each to life imprisonment and a fine of 50,000 rupees.
Died on the spot after being shot six times, three of them in the head. Just before death said he feared he could be killed because of his investigations into land expropriations linked to illegal sand mining.
Isravel Moses was hacked to death with machetes by alleged drug dealers in the Chennai suburb of Kundrathur after his neighbors identified him as a journalist. The murder occurred a week after he reported on the local sale of cannabis and associated illegal encroachments of land.
Burned to death with his friend after assailants set fire to his village house which fall under the jurisdiction of the Kotwali Dehat police station in the Balrampur district of Uttar Pradesh, India. The UP state government has since promised to offer his wife a job.
Burnt body discovered by the roadside after he went missing the previous day, presumed to be abducted. He had been reporting on illegal 'fake' clinics operating in the north-east.
Mutilated & decomposed body discovered three days after he went missing; the killer's had removed Singh's eyes. Singh's father, also a journalist, suspected he may have been targeted by local criminals, while the police suspected two of his journalist friends.
^ abcdScroll Staff (2021-12-17). "India among most dangerous countries for journalists, says media watchdog Reporters Without Borders". Scroll.in. Retrieved 2024-11-01Note: The article lists only 4 deaths in 2021, correctly summarising the Reporters Without Borders annual report it is citing, but both sources are wrong, as between the names listed in both media houses' data there were at least five journalists killed in India in 2021.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: postscript (link)
