Detectives of the Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) have arrested retired Major Mozzafar Hossain, a fugitive convicted in the assassination case of former President and BNP founder Ziaur Rahman, after nearly 45 years on the run.

He was arrested in the early hours of Wednesday from the Banani DOHS area of the capital, police said.

After completion of the necessary legal formalities, Mozzafar was handed over to the Bangladesh Army to face court martial proceedings.

Former President Ziaur Rahman was assassinated on May 30, 1981, during a military uprising in Chattogram led by a group of rebel army officers.

According to eyewitness accounts published in the Bangla daily Sangbad on June 2, 1981, a group of rebel soldiers arrived at the Chattogram Circuit House between 8am and 9am on the day of the assassination and removed the bodies of Ziaur Rahman and at least two others to an undisclosed location.

Contemporary media reports said the rebels took control of Chattogram city following the killing and imposed a curfew. Rebel troops patrolled different parts of the city for the next two days, while road, air and telecommunications links with Dhaka were severed, effectively isolating Chattogram from the rest of the country.

On the night of May 31, Major General Manzur and Colonel Matiur Rahman, along with several other officers involved in the uprising, left Chattogram Cantonment.

Subsequently, a military tribunal tried 18 army officers for their involvement in the assassination. Of them, 13 were sentenced to death, while the remaining five received varying prison terms.

Following the failure of the uprising, retired Major Mozzafar Hossain fled the country through the border and remained in hiding for nearly 45 years before his arrest.