Killed B'desh journalists' kin, colleagues protest lack of progress in solving case

Dhaka, Feb 12 Family members and colleagues of a journalist couple, murdered in 2012, on Saturday held a protest demanding that the elite Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) either solve the case quickly or admit its failure and hand over the investigation to another agency.

Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal said that RAB has been directed to provide the Sagar Sarwar and Meherun Runi murder case probe report soon.

Eleven years have passed since the murder of TV news editor Sarwar and senior reporter Runi on February 11, 2012 but the investigation is yet to unravel the mystery behind the murder. While their family members of the victims expressed frustration at the lengthy but unsuccessful investigation, the journalist community has expressed deep resentment over the authorities failure to solve the murder.

At a protest rally, journalists said the then Home Minister Shahara Khatun had announced the killers would be arrested within 48 hours but the authorities failed to even complete the investigation in over 95,000 hours.

The RAB, which is investigating the case, has failed to submit the probe report in the murder case 95 times.

"We should not forget that this is a criminal act and no matter what it must be treated as one. Criminals belong to a community of their own and not to those where they may reside as professionals. So, if for example the killers are journalists, then that in no way affects the journalists as a community. If the lifestyle and behaviour of anyone involved in the event seems wild or irresponsible or outrageous, it should come out because the stigma belongs to those only who have acted that way and not to all others who may belong to the media trade.

And nor should media leaders put pressure to protect the criminals arguing that if the truth comes out the profession will be affected negatively," the protesters maintained.

Expressing their utter frustration over what has been done in the last 11 years, journalists said they are afraid justice would not be meted out in the Sagar-Runi murder, but warned law enforcers not to concoct any fictitious story over the murder.

Dhaka Union of Journalists (DUJ) warned RAB that if it "filed any probe report making up any fictitious story, hiding the truth, then we, the journalist community, would start a war against RAB".

Several journalist leaders alleged that the culture of impunity created in the murder made way for murder of many journalists.

Dhaka Reporters Unity (DRU) President Mursalin Nomani said: "How long will we have to wait for trial of Sagar-Runi murder? We witness justice being delivered in any murder case but only the incidents of murder of journalists go unpunished." He said the journalist community will continue their movement demanding justice over Sagar-Runi murder as long as investigation is not finished and justice not delivered.