



Journalists staged a six-hour mass hunger strike in the capital yesterday to press home their demands including immediate arrest of the killers of journalist couple Sagar Sarowar and Meherun Runi.

Starting from around 10:00am, the strike was held at the Jatiya Press Club premises, jointly organised by Bangladesh Federal Union of Journalists (BFUJ), Dhaka Union of Journalists, Jatiya Press Club and Dhaka Reporters Unity.

Addressing the programme, Iqbal Sobhan Chowdhury, president of a faction of BFUJ, announced that journalists would stage a sit-in in front of the home ministry on January 1.

On January 20, they will also hold a grand rally in front of the capital's Jatiya Press Club and abstain from work in all print media from 11:00am to 2:00pm. The electronic media will also observe a work abstention programme â€œin their own wayâ€, he said.

Iqbal said if the demands were not met by this time, tougher programmes would be announced from the rally.

Sagar, news editor at the private TV station Maasranga, and his wife Runi, senior reporter at another TV channel ATN Bangla, were killed in the wee hours of February 11 at their rented apartment in the capital's West Rajabazar.

Journalist leaders also demanded arrest of and exemplary punishment to killers of all journalists, an end to harassment and assault of on-duty journalists by police and killing of journalists and attack on them by miscreants and ensuring press freedom.

On the October 9 naming of seven suspects in the Sagar-Runi murder by the home minister, Iqbal said, â€œAs four of the arrestees are professional killers, we want to know who hired them and what their motive was.â€

Ruhul Amin Gazi, also president of BFUJ, earlier said no journalist would be safe if the killers of Sagar-Runi were not punished.