NEW DELHI: A journalist was shot dead by three gunmen in northern India on Saturday, police said, the latest attack on media in one of Asia’s deadliest countries for reporters.

Rajesh Mishra, a 40-year-old reporter at the Hindi-language daily Dainik Jagran — one of India’s largest newspapers — was shot in the head by three gunmen on a motorcycle in Uttar Pradesh state, additional director general of police Anand Kumar said.

“Three thugs fired the shots. Two of the three have been identified,” Kumar told reporters.

“We are confident that we will arrest all three by tonight. We have their names and the investigation is on,” he said, adding police were yet to ascertain the motive behind the killing.

Mishra was a member of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), an influential right-wing Hindu organisation seen as the ideological fountainhead of the national ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

Saturday’s killing comes a month after a reporter covering political unrest in India’s northeast was beaten to death during violent clashes.

Published in Dawn, October 22nd, 2017