Sagar-Runi murder
Newsmen to march towards PMO on June 26
Newsmen will march towards the Prime Minister’s Office on June 26 demanding arrest and trial of the killers of journalist couple Sagar Sarwar and Meherun Runi.
The programme was announced at a sit-in demonstration by journalists outside the Bangladesh Secretariat on Tuesday also to press for exemplary punishment of the bus drivers responsible for the killing of journalists Dinesh Das, Shahiduzzman Tito and Bibhas Chandra Saha.
Concluding the sit-in, Iqbal Sobhan Chowdhury, president of a faction of Bangladesh Federal Union of Journalists, also announced
that a memorandum would be submitted to the Jatiya Sangsad speaker on June 5 demanding enactment of a law to ensure safety and security of newsmen.
Meetings will also be held at each of the media houses between Many 20 and June 15, he announced.
Besides, journalists will also besiege the ministry of information on May 27 demanding formation and implementation of the eighth wage board.
The journalists demanded security while discharging of their duties, stopping oppression on them and freedom of mass media.
The two factions of Bangladesh Federal Union of Journalists, two factions of Dhaka Union of Journalists, the National Press Club and the Dhaka Reporters Unity jointly organised the programme as part of a move for unity of journalists.
Tension mounted around the National Press Club area as police stopped traffic on one side of Topkhana Road where Bangabandhu Muktijoddha League was holding a demonstration.
The journalists brought out a procession from the press club at around 10:30am and a group of them marched towards Purana Paltan crossing to advance towards the secretariat through the Zero Point. The police stopped them at Purana Paltan but they broke through the barricade and marched towards gate 2 of the secretariat which was locked from inside to prevent the journalists from entering there.
The other group of journalists was forced to hold the programme on the street in between the press club and secretariat in the face of police obstruction. The first group joined them after parading Abdul Ghani Road.
Addressing the rally, Manjurul Ahsan Bulul said repeated incidents threatening security of newsmen had forced them to take to the streets.
He said the detective branch police had admitted their failure in probing the murders of Sagar and Runi. ‘Who will take the responsibility of such failure,’ he questioned. If there is no trial of the murders and deaths in traffic accidents, the procession of the dead would grow longer, he said.
He also urged reporters to investigate the murders of Sagar and Runi.
Amar Desh editor Mahmudur Rahman wondered how could the home minister be satisfied when detective branch police had admitted failure in the court.
News Today editor Reazuddin Ahmed said the home minister topped the tally in failures.
President of the other faction of BFUJ, Ruhul Amin Gazi, said, ‘The home minister claimed she was successful. It is true. But her success was in killing people.’
State minister for home Shamsul Haque told New Age on the day, ‘We have ordered the law enforcement agencies to identify the killers of Sagar and Runi and arrest them at any cost,’
He said Rapid Action Battalion was given the responsibility of investigation into the murders of the journalist couple as per the High Court directives.
‘The High Court may have more confidence in the efficiency of RAB and that is why it asked the authorities to hand over the task of investigation to the battalion from the detective branch,’ the state minister added.
Sagar Sarwar, news editor of Maasranga Television, and his wife Meherun Runi, senior reporter at ATN Bangla, were found murdered at their rented flat in West Rajabazar on February 11.
-With New Age input
