No prolonged agony of an elderly bereaved mother, who has been mourning her adult son’s murder and seeking justice for the last 783 days, can be so much profound and comparable with any other grief whatsoever. Perchance, time is the best healer; but not in the case of a mom whose child is absolutely a part of her own self, biologically. Hence, for Mrs. Saleha Monir the anguish caused by her son Sagar Sarwar’s homicide along with his wife Meherun Runi—-both senior journalists at ATN and Masranga TV channels respectively—-on their rented fourth floor apartment in Dhaka long two years ago will remain an inconsolable, lingering traumatic grief figuratively explicated as a circular staircase from where there is no escape.
Besides Mrs. Saleha Monir, the couple’s only son, five-year old Mahir Sarwar Megh, the family members of the deceased and the journalist community have been appealing to the ruling Awami League (AL) government of Sheikh Hasina since 12 February 2012, but practically nothing has been done so far which exposes the incumbent’s blatant insincerity to people’s life and safety.
The most talked about in the past quarter century, the unsolved double murder case of two renowned journalists who were stabbed to death, received widespread media coverage at home and attracted German interest as Sarowar had worked as a Deutsche Welle reporter, while the case was closely watched by journalists and international press freedom organizations, but the cavalier, lackadaisical manner of the probe manifested no seriousness at all.
One reason may be Sheikh Hasina’s irresponsible public utterance that “Government can’t ensure security in bedrooms,” (New Age dated February 23, 2012) which may have poured cold water on the probe.
Meherun Nahar Runi was a senior television reporter frequently reporting on energy issues and Golam Mustofa Sarowar was a founder and leader of the Forum for Energy Reporters Bangladesh as well as editor-in-chief for the online magazine Energy Bangla. The crime scene showed evidence that it had been searched and the couple’s possessions were strewn around the apartment—- valuables were not missing, but computer data device was heard to be stolen. A kitchen window grill was cut and had an opening of approximately 1.8 feet, which deputy commissioner at the Tejgaon police, said would be too small for an adult to pass through.
Runi’s brother Nowsher Alam Roman, who has represented both families, officially filed the couple’s murder case. Later on, home minister Sahara Khatun ordered the Bangladesh Police to arrest the murderers of Sagar and Runi within 48 hours. The autopsies in the case were done but no viscera test was conducted during the autopsy, which was later criticized. The bodies were later exhumed for further examination.
By order of the High Court in Bangladesh on 18 April 2012, the Sagar-Runi murder case was reassigned from the Detective Branch to the RAB, both of which are under the Bangladesh Police. The court called for the new investigators to use of advanced criminal investigation technologies. And the court also established a monitoring committee that was to be headed by a member of the police who achieved inspector general rank or higher and would be composed of journalists, lawyers, human rights activists, academicians and non-government organizations and other agencies. On August 2012, it was announced that two US labs had discovered the DNA of others and the RAB announced it would at a later date test the DNA samples of suspects for a match. After the announcement, the RAB then came under criticism from Bangladesh’s National DNA Profiling Laboratory Programme. The RAB had suggested that the analysis could not have been done by a domestic lab when the Programme said it had handled over 1800 cases since 2006 and they would have been able to use the same technologies in Bangladesh.
Police announced on 26 February 2012 they were “almost certain” about the motive. However, the motive was never made public by investigators.
Journalists identified stories that both Sarowar and Runi were working on that could possibly have been a motive for violence. Runi’s reporting involved corruption in Bangladesh’s energy industry and Sarowar was working on violence and minority rights. [Ibid] The online magazine about free speech Sampsonia Way reported that a rumour in Dhaka about the motive was that the couple had sensitive information about land acquisition by a “powerful corporation”. [“Bangladesh Media Protest Over Journalist Couple’s Murder”. Sampsonia Way Magazine. 2012-03-29.]
The government will do well if it remembers the adage: Every unpunished murder takes away something from the security of every man’s life”; because frequent murders, extrajudicial killings by law enforcers and enforced disappearances are rife in Bangladesh.
People question: How long the departed souls of Sagor and Runi cry for justice?
Source: Weekly Holiday
