On April 13, 2022, alleged narcotics dealers shot and killed Mohiuddin Sarker Nayeem, a reporter for the privately owned local newspaper Dainik Cumillar Dak, in Comilla district, about 60 miles southeast of the Bangladesh capital Dhaka, according to news reports.
Reports said that Nayeem, 28, had reported on drug trafficking before his killing, and had also informed law enforcement officials about drug trafficking.
On April 14, 2022, Nayeem’s mother told officers at the local Burichang police station that she believed an alleged narcotics dealer named Razu, who uses one name, was the main culprit in her son’s killing and named six others, according to news reports. Police arrested four suspects in connection with the crime on April 15.
On April 16, 2022, Razu was killed in a gunfight with the police Rapid Action Battalion, according to those reports.
Md. Anwar Hossain, deputy inspector-general of the Chittagong department of the Bangladesh police, which oversees Comilla district, did not respond to CPJ’s request for comment sent via messaging app sent in April and May 2022.