Newspaper Editor Killed in Bangladesh

By: (AP) Unidentified assailants stabbed to death a newspaper editor in eastern Bangladesh, police and his colleagues said Tuesday.

Golam Mahfuz, editor of the Comilla Muktakantha daily, was attacked Monday at his home in Comilla, a town 50 miles east of the capital, Dhaka. He was 39.

"We are trying to understand whether it happens for journalism or for any personal cause," intelligence official Mozammel Haque said by phone.

Police detained four people for questioning, he said.

The local press club condemned the killing and announced a three-day mourning period.

Journalists in Bangladesh are often targeted for writing about topics such as corruption, political violence, or organized crime.

At least 10 journalists have been killed and dozens wounded in this South Asian nation since 1997, media rights groups say.

The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists this month labeled Bangladesh one of the world's five "most murderous countries" for journalists, along with the Philippines, Colombia, Iraq and Russia.