DHAKA(National Times)- Bangladesh police arrested on Thursday a retired military officer accused of involvement in the assassination of former president Ziaur Rahman more than four decades ago, a senior official said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Ziaur Rahman was killed in 1981 during a military coup. Following his assassination, a martial law court convicted 18 military officers of mutiny, although the defence argued they had not been given a fair trial.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Thirteen of them were then executed by hanging. One of the alleged assassins, Md Mozaffar Hossain, went into hiding immediately after Rahman was killed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Authorities had offered a reward of $2,000 for information leading to Hossain\u2019s arrest, and on Thursday he was taken into custody.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cMd Mozaffar Hossain had remained a fugitive since 1981 after president Ziaur Rahman was assassinated. We detained him today,\u201d Md Shafiqul Islam, chief of the police\u2019s Detective Branch, said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cDuring interrogation, he explained his role in the assassination to us,\u201d Islam added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Police arrested the suspect shortly after he landed in Dhaka. \u201cHossain left Bangladesh immediately after the coup attempt and had remained abroad ever since,\u201d Islam said. Rahman, whose son Tarique Rahman is now the country\u2019s prime minister, became president in 1977 following the assassination of Bangladesh\u2019s founding president Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
His four-year presidency was marked by dozens of coup attempts. The circumstances surrounding Rahman\u2019s assassination have remained shrouded in mystery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He was killed while on a visit to Chattogram, where he had gone to resolve a crisis within his newly formed political party.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
DHAKA(National Times)- Bangladesh police arrested on Thursday a retired military officer accused of involvement in the assassination of former president Ziaur Rahman more than four decades ago, a senior official said. Ziaur Rahman was killed in 1981 during a military coup. Following his assassination, a martial law court convicted 18 military officers of mutiny, although […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":129527,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-129526","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-international","entry"],"yoast_head":"\n