On 9 January, Ashiqul Islam, district correspondent of the Daily Monitor and a reporter for local daily Brahmanbaria Patrika, was hacked to death in a knife- attack while he was returning home in an auto-rickshaw. According to a media- report, a group of assailants, attacked 27-year-old Islam with a knife near Faruki Park in Brahmanbaria,Chattogram. All the assailants fled the scene immediately after leaving Islam seriously injured.