Bangladesh hangs killer of independence leader
Abdul Majed hanged for killing Bangladesh independence leader Sheikh Mujibur Rahman in 1975
DHAKA, Bangladesh
The fugitive killer of Bangladesh’s founder Sheikh Mujibur Rahman has been executed after being apprehended earlier this week.
Retired Capt. Abdul Majed, a fugitive for 45 years, was killed by hanging at 12.01 a.m. on Sunday (0601GMT Saturday), Prisons Inspector General (IG) Brig. Gen. AKM Mustafa Kamal Pasha told a press briefing afterwards.
His body will be handed over for funeral to his family members, who also met him in the central jail in the capital Dhaka before the execution, Pasha added.
Majed, 72, was among 12 self-confessed killers of Rahman, the father of the nation and first prime minister of Bangladesh, along with most of his family members in a coup on Aug. 15, 1975.
Majed had been convicted in absentia in 1998, and in 2009, the country’s Supreme Court upheld the death sentence for Majed and 11 others for the murder.
Five were hanged in 2010, one died in Zimbabwe in 2001, and five are still reportedly still fugitives.
After Majed’s arrest on Tuesday, the government called the execution a “gift” for Bangladeshis on the 100th anniversary of Rahman’s birth.
