They also said that planners of murder, financiers, patrons and professional killers would be identified.
Journalist leaders, politicians and rights activists made the demand in a human chain programme organized by ‘Sangbadik Manik Saha Hatyar Bicharprarthi Sangkhubdha Sangbadik Samaj’ marking the 15th death anniversary of Manik Saha in front of the National Press Club in the capital.
Manik Shaha, a stringer of BBC Bangla Service, senior reporter of daily New Age and Dainik Sangbad was bombed to death at noon on January 15 in 2004 at Chhota Mirzapur, in Khulna city.
Manik Saha, awarded with Ekushey Padak posthumously, was also the Khulna chapter president of Amnesty International and the president of Khulna Press Club.
Communist Party of Bangladesh president Mujahidul Islam Selim said, that Manik Saha was not only a professional journalist, but also he was a human rights activist, social reformer and real patriot. Manik is the inspiration of young journalists”, Selim said.
He urged the authorities concerned to file an appeal against trail court’s verdict before the high court.
Noting Manik Saha as a journalist of strict principles, Manjurul Ahsan Bulbul, former president of Bangladesh Federal Union of Journalists, said that impartial and legal justice of his murder is mandatory for free media and to ensure journalists’ safety across the country. Otherwise boldness and neutral journalism will be abolished gradually, he remarked.
Channel 24 current affairs editor Rahul Raha said that Manik Saha lost life physically, but he would be alive in common people’s heart through his activities.
He urged the government to take initiatives to ensure capital punishment for the real culprits, including planners, financiers and patrons, behind the brutal murder.
Moderated by ptbnews.com editor Ashis Kumar Dey, the human chain was addressed by, among others, CPB central secretary Ruhin Hossain Prince, rights activist Jalal Uddin, advocate Hasan Tarique Chowdhury, journalist Nikhil Vadra, Sakila Parveen Ruma and Rafiqul Islam Sabuj.