Bangladeshi journalists' bodies exhumed after over two months

Dhaka, April 26 (IANS) Bodies of two popular TV journalists of Bangladesh who were murdered abut two-and-a-half months ago have been exhumed for fresh autopsies in search of clues to the killings, media reports said Thursday.

Meherun Runi, senior reporter of ATN Bangla TV channel, and her husband Sagar Sarowar, news editor of Maasranga Television, were killed Feb 11 in their apartment in the posh West Rajabazar area of Dhaka.

The remains of Runi and her husband Sarowar were exhumed from their graves here following a Dhaka court order, reported Xinhua citing media reports.

It was done after the country's Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) in its petition said that the viscera test reports of the journalists were not properly preserved by the previous investigation officers.

The RAB said there was a need for exhumation of the remains of the bodies for fresh viscera tests and chemical experiments.

On April 24, the court permitted RAB, following the elite force's petition, to exhume the remains of the bodies of the journalists who were killed early Feb 11 at their home.

Amid weeks of protest by journalists, a high court division bench of Bangladesh April 18 ordered the relevant authorities to transfer the sensational murder case to RAB while it also vented its frustration over the failure of the Detective Branch to unearth the mystery behind the killing and arrest the assailants.

Frustrated with the pace of investigation, journalists across Bangladesh over the last two months staged a series of demonstrations that included pen-down and mass hunger strikes, sit-ins and procession-like peaceful programmes seeking arrest and trial of the killers.