Bangladeshi founder Mujibur Rahman's killer was hanged

SOURCE: GOOGLE

A former military officer, the killer of Bangladesh's founding leader Sheikh Mujiburrahman, was hanged early Sunday morning, April 12. The culprit was allegedly hiding in India, who was arrested last week.

Sheikh Mujibur Rahman was assassinated in 1975 during a military coup. Abdul Majid, a former military officer convicted of killing the founder leader of this South Asian country, was hanged today in the Dhaka Central Jail early Sunday morning.

The culprit was also last met with his wife and four other relatives on Friday, April 10, before he was sentenced.

Prior to this last meeting, President of Bangladesh Mohammad Abdul Hamid rejected the mercy appeal of the guilty on Thursday, April 9th.

Abdul Majid, the culprit, was arrested on Tuesday, April 7 in Dhaka, the country's capital. His arrest was named by Interior Minister Asaduzzaman Khan "the greatest gift to Bangladesh" during the year. The culprit is believed to have been hiding in neighbouring India for years.

Several ex-military officers sentenced to death

Abdul Majid, along with about a dozen other former army officers, was convicted by a country court in 1998 and sentenced to death. Then in 2009, the Bangladeshi Supreme Court upheld the verdict against them. Five of Abdul Majid's accomplices were sentenced to death just months after the Supreme Court's final verdict more than a decade ago.

Nearly forty-five years ago today, Sheikh Mujiburrahman and his family were killed in a bloody attempt by the army to take over. His daughter Sheikh Hasina, however, survived the attack. She has been the Prime Minister of the country for the past several years.

Controversial law of amnesty for killers

Several civilian governments that came to power after the assassination of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman had also appointed Abdul Majid in several diplomatic positions. In this regard, the first government formed in Dhaka after the assassination of Shaikh Mujib and the seizure of power had passed a law under which the killers of Sheikh Mujib were protected from possible legal action against them. The law was repealed in 1996, when Sheikh Hasina, daughter of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, became the country's prime minister.

Present Bangladesh was formerly called East Pakistan, which, after a nine-month struggle in 1971, secured independence from former West Pakistan. Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the leader of Bangladesh's independence, was later called the founder of this new state.

Source: DW