DHAKA, 28 June 2004 — The editor of a newspaper was killed in a bomb attack in Khulna yesterday, the second journalist to be murdered this year in the southwestern port city.
Humayun Kabir Balu, 56, editor of Bengali-language newspaper Dainik Janmabhumi, was attacked as he stepped out of his car in front of his office in Khulna, 136 km southwest of the capital Dhaka, said police officer Sajjad Ali.
Witnesses said the attackers, numbering around three, fled on a motorbike after hurling at least three bombs at Kabir.
Kabir was taken to a hospital with leg and stomach wounds. But he died during surgery nearly an hour later, said Mohammad Murad, a medical assistant at Khulna Medical College Hospital.
Kabir’s 27-year-old son, Asif, was wounded in the attack.
“I saw two men run inside the park after the bomb blast,” Asif Kabir, a university student, told reporters, referring to a park across from the office.
Another son and daughter had already entered the building, escaping injury, witnesses said. Kabir’s family live in the three-story building where the newspaper office is housed.
Police later found two unexploded bombs — explosives and nails stuffed inside small tins _ where the attack took place, Ali said. Police cordoned off the busy downtown area.
Police were investigating, but said it was not immediately clear why Kabir was targeted.
Colleagues said Kabir had recently received threats over the telephone from extortionists, who were demanding 50,000 takas ($900). Kabir did not inform police about the threats, they said.
Kabir also owned a commercial printing press.
He was the second journalist to be killed in the crime-prone city this year. In January, Manik Saha, a correspondent for the daily New Age newspaper and the Bengali language service of British Broadcasting Corp., was killed in a bomb attack.
