Reporters Without Borders (RWB) has strongly denounced the murder of journalist Pushkar Bahadur Shrestha on January 12 in Birgunj.
Responsibility for his shooting was claimed by Janatantrik Tarai Mukti Morcha, a militia led by Jwala Singh, which says it defends the population of the southern plains. It called Shrestha a "pahadi" journalist, meaning one from the hill region.
"Shrestha's murder tragically highlights the violence affecting civilians, including journalists, as a result of the ethnic tension in southern Nepal," the press freedom organisation said. "Hope of defusing the tension this year seems to be evaporating in the face of the inability of the authorities to curb the repeated violence."
Reporters Without Borders is part of an international press freedom delegation that is currently visiting Nepal. Members of the delegation, including a Reporters Without Borders representative, went to Birgunj to investigate Shrestha's murder.
The publisher of two local weeklies, Highway Weekly and New Season, Shrestha was shot in the back on the evening of January 12 while with his brother in a small town near Birgunj, which is on the border with India. He was killed the day that the latest issue of Highway Weekly was published.
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