Geneva, 8 August 2025 – The Press Emblem Campaign (PEC), a global media safety and rights watchdog, has strongly condemned the brutal murder of Bangladeshi journalist Md Asaduzzaman Tuhin and called upon the interim government in Dhaka to swiftly apprehend those responsible. Tuhin, aged 40, was hacked to death by unidentified miscreants in the Gazipur area on the evening of 7 August.
Tuhin, who was associated with the Bengali daily Dainik Pratidiner Kagoj published from Mymensingh, was attacked while seated at a tea stall in the Chandana Chowrasta market. According to reports, he had been filming incidents of extortion in the market, where a group of individuals were seen demanding money from local vendors and engaging in internal altercations. When Tuhin refused to stop recording, the assailants turned on him. He sustained fatal injuries and died on the spot. Dhaka police later recovered his body and sent it for autopsy.
“It’s so pathetic that a journalist had to lose his life as he exposed the extortionists in the crowded capital city,” stated PEC President Blaise Lempen (www.pressemblem.ch). He further pointed out that this is not an isolated incident. On 25 June, another journalist, Khandaker Shah Alam, was killed in Nabinagar, Dhaka. Alam, associated with Dainik Matrijagat, was murdered by a recently released prisoner who had reportedly been jailed due to Alam’s reporting.
As Bangladesh prepares for national elections slated for mid-February 2026, Lempen emphasized the urgent need for the authorities to guarantee the safety and security of journalists across the country. “The current regime led by Dr Muhammad Yunus has promised a more favourable environment for media professionals compared to the previous government under ousted Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. That promise must translate into real protections and freedoms on the ground,” he asserted. Lempen urged that the perpetrators of both Tuhin’s and Alam’s murders be held accountable and punished under the law.
PEC’s South and Southeast Asia representative, Nava Thakuria, added that just a day before Tuhin’s killing, another journalist, Anwar Hossain Sourav of Dainik Bangladesher Alo, was physically attacked by miscreants in the Sahapara area of Gazipur. Sourav is currently undergoing treatment in a hospital for his injuries.
Tuhin is the second journalist from Bangladesh to be killed since the beginning of 2025 and the 95th media casualty worldwide this year. In recent weeks, radio journalist Erwin Labitad Segovia was also murdered in the Philippines. India has witnessed the killing of five media persons in the first half of 2025: Mukesh Chandrakar, Raghavendra Vajpayee, Sahadev Dey, Dharmendra Singh Chauhan, and Chintakayalu Naresh Kumar. Pakistan lost three journalists—Allah Dino Shar, Abdul Latif Baloch, and Syed Mohammed Shah—while Nepal recorded the killing of journalist Suresh Rajak during the same period.
The PEC reiterated its call for stronger protections for journalists and accountability for crimes against the press in South Asia and around the globe.
