After a couple of minutes, my phone stared ringing; it was one of my friends. Thereafter, I went to my room which was just around the corner and as soon as I reached my room, my journalist friends Prabin, Rupesh and Homnath  took me to STNM hospital. The hammer blow had resulted in a nasty cut on my head which required four stitches. Among the victims of the attack, Shaker Khawas, one of the injured journalists was in a serious condition. However the condition of some other journalists was also somewhat critical. Therefore, three of us were referred to Manipal Hospital at Tadong 5th Mile. After three days we were discharged from this hospital.

It isn’t that I was unaware of the hard fact that journalists always have to risk their life and limb, living on the edge in their pursuit of the truth, I, however, was unaware that I would be assaulted one day by masked goons during duty hours at my office in a state like Sikkim. I had heard about Mumia Abu Jamal, a black journalist who was tortured and jailed by the US government but who is still determined and is continuously writing even from jail.

I had read of the risks that the journalists in Iraq face on a daily basis. They are bombed and mutilated. These stories, however, are from areas which are facing extreme circumstances. But in Sikkim, to be attacked at my own office, this is something I would never have imagined, even in my wildest dreams. Everybody knows that working journalists have nothing to do with the policy of the newspaper house. They work in any house to make ends meet. So under these circumstances I had never thought that along with the newspaper house, I too, would become a target. Anyway, thanks to the active efforts of fellow members of the Press Club of Sikkim this heinous and brutal attack was strongly condemned by every quarter of the society.

It is high time that members of the press came forward, unified in securing their professional security so that such an incident will not happen again. We should not encourage any form of violence as it will turn out to be fatal for both quarters, ruling and opposition parties. Therefore, such anti social activities should be nipped in the bud if we truly want our state to be a haven of peace.

D.B. Rai