Sagar-Runi Murder: Take action against case investigators

Frustrated, several journalist leaders yesterday demanded actions against the investigators for their failure to identify and arrest the killers of Sagar-Runi in five years.

“Immediate action has to be taken against the officials who have failed to catch the killers,” said Raju Ahmed, former general secretary of Dhaka Reporters' Unity (DRU).

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Shawkat Mahmud, president of a faction of the Bangladesh Federal Union of Journalists, said it was shameful that the attackers and their motive were still unknown.

The journalist leaders also sought court intervention in the matter, alleging that the officials concerned were wasting year after year without making any visible progress in the investigation.

They were speaking at a discussion marking the fifth death anniversary of journalist couple Sagar Sarowar and Meherun Runi on the premises of DRU in the capital. Several hundred journalists as well as the relatives of the couple, including their only son Mahir Sarowar Megh, 10, attended the programme.  

Many of the speakers criticised Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal for one of his recent comments that he was not aware of the update of the case. They also demanded his removal.

Runi's younger brother Nowsher Alam Roman said, “Such a remark from the minister has disheartened us.

He, however, said, “We have lost almost all our hope for justice. But we won't stop [our movement] until we get it”.

BFUJ Secretary General Omar Faruk said, “We are being attacked, tortured and killed. We have a guardian. He is Information Minister Hasanul Haq Inu. However, he has remained tight-lipped”.

Speakers from several journalist organisations pledged to stay united and step up their movement for this cause. A faction of the Dhaka Union of Journalists (DUJ) will hold rallies today and on March 11 in front of the Jatiya Press Club, demanding immediate arrest of the killers.

Runi, senior reporter of private TV channel ATN Bangla, and her husband Sagar Sarowar, news editor of another TV station Maasranga, were murdered in the bedroom of their apartment in the capital's West Rajabazar on February 11, 2012.

Megh, who was only five-year old, was at home that time.

Immediately after the incident, the then home minister Sahara Khatun assured that killers would be arrested in 48 hours.

The Rapid Action Battalion, which is probing the case for four and a half years after the failure of the Detective Branch (DB) of police, hasn't made any visible progress in finding out the perpetrators. The investigators have got the time extended for 48 times for the submission of the progress report.

Former BFUJ president Ruhul Amin Gazi, former general secretary Abdul Jalil Bhuyian, DUJ President Shaban Mahmood, General Secretary Sohel Haider Chowdhury, DRU President Shakhawat Hossain Badsha, General Secretary M Mursalin Nomani, among others, spoke at the discussion yesterday.