Home Minister Salahuddin Ahmed on Monday said the former army officer Md Mozzaffar Hossain who was arrested last Wednesday in connection with the assassination of former President Ziaur Rahman will be tried in martial court.

“We handed him over to the Army to be tried under military law. It is expected that his trial will be concluded through a General Court Martial,” the minister said while speaking to the journalists after visiting the Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) Headquarters.

Salahuddin said Mozaffar’s associates were prosecuted under a military court of that time.

“Those proceedings contain certain findings,” he said.

The Detective Branch (DB) of the Dhaka Metropolitan Police arrested retired Major Mozzaffar last week.

After completing the necessary legal procedures, he was handed over to the Bangladesh Army to complete the court martial.

Mozzaffar had been on the run for the past 45 years.

Ziaur Rahman was Bangladesh's sixth president, a former Chief of Army Staff, and a freedom fighter.

On 29 May 1981, Ziaur Rahman traveled to Chattogram on an official visit. In the early hours of 30 May, he was assassinated by a group of army personnel at the Chattogram Circuit House.

The assailants buried his body in a remote forested area of Raozan in Chattogram.

Three days later, his body was recovered and brought to Dhaka. Millions attended his funeral prayers at Sher-e-Bangla Nagar, and he was later laid to rest on the grounds of the National Parliament.