Bangladesh arrests fugitive suspect in ex-president’s murder
Sign up now: Get insights on Asia's fast-moving developments
The circumstances surrounding former Bangladeshi president Ziaur Rahman’s assassination have remained shrouded in mystery.
PHOTO: PEXELS
- Bangladesh police arrested Md Mozaffar Hossain, a fugitive suspect in former president Ziaur Rahman's 1981 assassination, after he returned to Dhaka.
- Hossain fled Bangladesh immediately after the coup and had been living abroad since then, with a US$2,000 reward offered for his capture.
- Ziaur Rahman, a war hero and president, was killed during a military coup, and 18 officers were convicted, with 13 executed; the assassination remains surrounded by mystery.
AI generated
DHAKA – Bangladesh police arrested on July 16 a retired military officer accused of involvement in the assassination of former president Ziaur Rahman more than four decades ago, a senior official said.
Rahman, a war hero who went on to become president, was killed in 1981 during a military coup.
Following his assassination, a martial law court convicted 18 military officers over his murder, although the defence argued they had not been given a fair trial.
Thirteen of them were then executed by hanging.
One of the alleged assassins, Md Mozaffar Hossain, went into hiding immediately after Rahman was killed.
The authorities had offered a reward of US$2,000 (S$2,580) for information leading to Hossain’s arrest, and on July 16 he was taken into custody.
“Md Mozaffar Hossain had remained a fugitive since 1981 after president Ziaur Rahman was assassinated. We detained him today,” Md Shafiqul Islam, chief of the police’s Detective Branch, told AFP.
“During interrogation, he explained his role in the assassination to us,” Islam added.
Police arrested the suspect shortly after he landed in Dhaka.
“Hossain left Bangladesh immediately after the coup attempt and had remained abroad ever since,” Islam said.
Rahman, whose son Tarique Rahman is now the country’s prime minister, became president in 1977 following the assassination of Bangladesh’s founding president Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.
His four-year presidency was marked by dozens of coup attempts.
The circumstances surrounding Rahman’s assassination have remained shrouded in mystery.
He was killed while on a visit to Chattogram, where he had gone to resolve a crisis within his newly formed political party. AFP
