Govt can't guard one's bedroom, says PM

Sheikh Hasina flays journalists' agitation since the killing of Sagar Sarowar and Meherun Runi

Dhaka, Feb 23 (bdnews24.com) – Amid criticism over the government's failure to identify and arrest the killers of journalist couple Sagar Sarowar and Meherun Runi, prime minister Sheikh Hasina has said it is not possible for the government to guard anyone's bedroom.

She also criticised journalists for their demonstrations and other protest programmes since the killing of the couple.

Hasina, also president of the ruling Awami League, was speaking at a meeting of the party's grassroots-level leaders from Sylhet district at her official residence Ganabhaban.

The prime minister also came down heavily on a section of reporters who interviewed Mahir Sarowar Megh, the five-year son of the slain journalist couple.

Sagar, news editor of private television channel Maasranga, and his wife Meherun Runi, a senior reporter of another private television channel ATN Bangla, were killed in the early hours on Feb 11 at their rented flat in the city's West Rajabazar.

Various journalist organisations, including some backed by the ruling Awami League, rallied across the country on Wednesday criticising the government's failure in arresting the killers of the journalist couple even after 10 days of the incident.

The journalist community also announced a one-hour pen down for Monday and hunger strike on Mar 1 to press home their demand for immediate arrest and trial of the killers.

Hasina on Thursday said: "The journalists are staging demonstrations. But it's not possible for the government to guard anyone's bedroom."

Main opposition BNP has demanded resignation of home minister Shahara Khatun for her failure in arresting the killers of the couple. She had on Feb 18 said the prime minister herself was supervising the case.

On the agitation of the journalists, Hasina said had the journalist community raised their voice and staged movement after the killings of Manik Saha and Humayun Kabir Balu during the BNP-Jamaat regime, no such killings would have taken place.

"You (the journalist community) didn't go for such a movement when the BNP was in power. It seems that you feel safe during our regime to launch such movement," she added.

"Media is now open and free. They're writing many things independently. But at the same time, they're also dishing out false information," she observed.

The prime minister also alleged that the presence of a large number of journalists at the house of the couple destroyed evidence of the killing.

"Be careful next time as you've destroyed the evidence this time," she said asking the reporters not to gather on the crime scene so close that could destroy valuable clues and ultimately hamper the investigation.

"You (journalists) should help the detectives if you have any information about the killing," she told journalists.

Censuring the reporters who interviewed the son of the slain couple, Hasina said: "What kind of sense of responsibility is this? How can you (journalists) go for interrogating the child who lost his parents? It isn't proper. It's not the work of the journalists to interrogate anyone, it's the work of detectives."

In an oblique reference to the opposition leader, Hasina said: "Don't cause sufferings to the countrymen in the name of movement only to save the war criminals. The people will not allow you to have power stepping on the dead bodies."

Regarding the allegation raised by BNP that it is not allowed to speak in parliament, she said opposition leader Khaleda Zia was present on only six days in the ninth parliament and gave her speech on four days.

Finance minister A M A Muhith, and senior AL leaders Sheikh Fazlul Karim Selim and Mahbubul Alam Hanif were present at the meeting.

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