Bangladesh executes ex-Army officer for assassinating Bangabandhu

Bangladesh has executed a former military captain for his involvement in the 1975 coup in which the country's founder Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman was assassinated, nearly four-and-a-half decades after the massacre.

Abdul Majed was hanged at 12.01 AM (local time), Law Minister Anisul Huq told PTI.

An official of the Dhaka Central Jail at Keraniganj on the outskirts of the capital said that a doctor declared Majed dead at 12.15 AM.

Inspector General of Prisons Brigadier General AKM Mostafa Kamal Pasha at a media briefing in front of the jail said that the body would now be handed over to the family members for burial.

"Concerned officials who were required to witness the execution under law were present," he said, adding this was the first case of execution since the Dhaka Central Jail was relocated at the newly-built facility at Keraniganj two years ago.

Jailor Mahbubul Islam later said that the officials present included Dhaka's deputy commissioner who is the district magistrate