The convicted killer of Bangladesh’s first President Sheikh Mujibur Rahman was hanged immediately after midnight today in Dhaka.

The self confessed fugitive and former army personnel Abdul Majed was arrested on 7th April from Mirpur area of Dhaka by the Counter Terrorism and Transnational Crime (CTTC) unit of Bangladesh. His mercy petition was rejected by the President of Bangladesh M. Abdul Hamid three days back after the death warrant was issued on Wednesday.

Abdul Majed was among the 12 former army personnel who were awarded death sentence in 1998 for the assassination of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman in 1975. It was later confirmed by the High Court in 2009.

Five of the convicted army personnel were hanged in 2010 while one fugitive convict died of natural causes in Zimbabwe Six of the convicted army personnel have been absconding. Abdul Majed was one of them.

Earlier, Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal had said that the ‘self confessed killer’ of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman was also involved in the subsequent murder of four top leaders of the country in Dhaka central Jail on 3 November 1975. He said that Majed claimed to live in hiding in Kolkata for the last 23 years after fleeing the country.

Sheikh Mujibur Rahman was killed along with most of his family members on 15 August 1975 by some army personnel at his residence in Dhaka. Daughter of Sheikh Mujib, the current Prime Minister of Bangladesh Sheikh Hasina and her sister had survived the attack as they were abroad at that time.

The trial for the killing started 22 years later in 1997 after the incident.