Major (retired) Mohammad Mozzaffar Hossain, one of the convicted killers of Bangladesh’s late President Ziaur Rahman, was arrested by the Detective Branch (DB) police from a flat in Banani DOHS, Dhaka, late Wednesday night. The flat reportedly belonged to his father-in-law. Following legal procedures, Mozzaffar was handed over to the Bangladesh Army’s Military Police on Thursday evening, according to a Dhaka Metropolitan Police statement.

Mozzaffar had been sentenced to death in absentia for his involvement in the 1981 assassination of President Ziaur Rahman in Chittagong. Law enforcement sources said he had long been under surveillance before being captured through a planned operation. Investigators revealed that he had fled to India after the killing, lived there under a false identity, and later returned to Bangladesh during a previous government, living quietly in Dhaka.

The arrest has sparked widespread reaction on social media, with many users describing it as a historic step toward justice and closure for one of Bangladesh’s most controversial political assassinations.