Bangladeshi journalist community threatens tougher movement

Bangladesh journalist community at a protest demonstration in front of National Press Club, Dhaka on Wednesday

The country’s journalist community has threatened to paralyze the capital if the killers of journalist couple Sagar Sarowar and Meherun Runi are not arrested within October 10, the deadline set by the new Home Minister Mohiuddin Khan Alamgir.

Bangladesh Federal Union of Journalists President Iqbal Sobhan Chowdhury announced the plan from a rally in front of the National Press Club on Wednesday morning (Sept. 26).

“Journalists from across the country will join a grand rally on Oct 15 if the killers of Sagar-Runi are not arrested and put to trial by Oct 10,” Chowdhury told the rally.

They have plans to warm up the ground before the expiry of the deadline and mobilise journalists for their grand rally.

On Oct 7, journalists’ organisations will sit for a view exchange programme on the issue, followed by a memorial meeting scheduled for Oct 11, eight months since the killing of the journalist duo, before the press club.

Unidentified miscreants stabbed the journalist couple Sagor-Runi to death at their West Rajabazar residence in the city on February 11.

Sagar Sarwar was news editor of Maasranga Television, while his wife Meherun Runi was senior reporter of ATN Bangla.

Earlier on Tuesday, the newly appointed home minister MK Alamgir said that the motive behind the killing of journalist couple Sagar-Runi would be unveiled by October 10.

“By October 10, hopefully, we will be able to comment on the exact progress in this regard, or on those who we are going to identify as the criminals,” the minister told journalists at his secretariat office.

“Grant us a while. It is not as easy as it appears. It is important where, for how long the deceased had worked. Mutual relations between their families are crucial. Their co-workers’ role is vital. Likewise, whereabouts of their domestic helps is important,” the minister said.

“With all these evaluated and analysed, we hope to extract the actual facts to identify and nab the ones responsible for this crime,” he added.

Frustrated over the Detective Branch’s failure to identify the killer(s) of Sagar and Runi, the High Court on April 18 has ordered the authorities concerned to shift the case to Rab. Meanwhile, Rapid Action Battalion on Tuesday interrogated ATN Bangla Chairman Mahfuzur Rahman over the killing of the journalist couple Sagar Sarowar and Meherun Runi.

Rahman, who has found himself in the controversy surrounding the murders, was called to the paramilitary force’s headquarters after journalists’ leaders raised the demand with Home Minister Mohiuddin Khan Alamgir in a meeting around noon.

Rahman threw himself into controversy after claiming in London that extra-marital relationship was behind the twin murders. Journalists on the payroll of Rahman scuffled with those who have been demanding that he be arrested and questioned.

Later, different journalists’ associations expelled several journalists of ATN Bangla.

In the face of their demands, RAB questioned him on June 21 at the ATN Bangla office. But the journalists pressed on with the agitation and at one point, Rahman filed cases to muffle his critics.

In the meeting, the Home Minister at one point called the ATN Bangla Chairman as a ‘media mogul’, which Iqbal Sobhan Chowdhury, chief of a Bangladesh Federal Union Journalist (BFUJ) faction, protested.

“We have already declared the person media’s enemy whom you are terming as media mogul”

“He will file cases against us, speak against the Prime Minister but nothing will happen to him. Then where is the rule of law in this country?”

Facing the journalists’ wrath about no headway in the probe eight months on, the Home Minister said, “Investigations have made enough progress. I hope it will be possible to unravel Sagar-Runi murder mystery by Oct 10.”

When asked about the latest status of their probe, RAB spokesperson Commander M Sohail told newsmen that the report of the DNA test on samples including clothes from Sagar-Runi’s residence may arrive from the US around the last week of this month.

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