Authorities in India must move quickly to identify those responsible for sending at least five threats to kill journalists for critical coverage of the government and take steps to ensure the journalists' security, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today.

Deeksha Sharma, a reporter for The Quint news website; Mohammed Ali, a reporter with The Hindu daily newspaper; and Sonal Mehrotra Kapoor, a reporter with the NDTV broadcast news network received WhatsApp messages in Hindi that threatened to "finish off" anyone who writes critically about the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party, according to the journalists and news reports. The message said that Gauri Lankesh, the publisher and editor of Gauri Lankesh Patrike who was shot dead in Bangalore city on September 4, was killed by those who believed in the Hindutva ideology -- one that advocates for supremacy of Hindus. "She was killed because she criticized the Modi government," the message said. "She was killed because she is against Hindus. She was an anti-national."