The International Press Institute (IPI) today urged Nepal’s government not to allow the murder of a journalist early Wednesday morning to go unpunished.

The chair of IPI’s Nepal National Committee, Padma Singh Karki, said print and television journalist Yadav Poudel, 38, was found dead in Birtamod in the south-eastern Nepalese district of Jhapa at approximately 12:30 a.m. near a bus park.

The cause of death was unclear, as some local sources indicated that he was wounded about the head and neck with a sharp weapon, while others reported that he was beaten and thrown from the top of a three-story building.

IPI Press Freedom Manager Barbara Trionfi, who was part of an international press freedom mission to Nepal in February, said: “Attacks against journalists are frequent in Nepal and in most cases investigations do not lead to the prosecution of the perpetrators. While we understand that the constitutional drafting process is currently the top priority of Nepal’s government, this should not become a pretext for the failure to ensure that justice is served.”

Poudel was a district correspondent for Avenues TV and for the daily newspaper Rajdhani. He also worked as the executive editor of local daily Mechi Times and was reportedly planning to launch a new daily newspaper.

His uncle told online journal The Nepal Monitor that Poudel said recently that “he was doing well as a journalist and he was not facing any risks or threats for his works”.

However, the Jhapa chapter of the Federation of Nepali Journalists (FNJ), a national umbrella group of journalists, said it suspected that Poudel was targeted because of his journalism, which included a recent report on growing prostitution in hotels near the bus park.

Police have reportedly arrested 16 people suspected of involvement, including the two owners of one of the hotels.

Impunity for attacks on journalists has been a persistent problem in Nepal. According to IPI’s Death Watch, Poudel’s death marks the first killing of a journalist in the country since 2010. However, 18 other journalists have died in the country over the last decade, most of them murdered, and many of the crimes remain unsolved.