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Alert

Journalist Farid Alam forced to leave country after receiving death threats from Islamist group

(RSF/IFEX) - Reporters Without Borders condemns the death threats made against TV journalist Farid Alam by the underground Islamist group Jamayetul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) on 3 February 2009, two days after the publication of Alam's book "Islamic Militancy: Bangladesh Context."

Blamed by JMB for the death sentence imposed on its leader, Alam fled the country and is currently in exile in Europe.

"JMB's militants are again behaving aggressively towards journalists," Reporters Without Borders said. "We urge the police to investigate these threats and protect those in danger."

JMB sent letters, threatening Alam, to Channel 1 television, to his home in Dacca, and to the village where he was born in Tangail District. Alam, who has worked for Channel 1, NTV and the "Amader Shomoy" daily newspaper, was also threatened in several phone calls. His book is a compilation of reports and commentaries about the growth of militant Islamism in Bangladesh.

Some journalists were among the wounded when a detained JMB militant being presented to the press managed to set off a grenade on 20 February at Gazipur police station, 30 km north of Dacca.