Matiur shot Zia; Ershad flew to Ctg two days before

Former army officer Major (retd) Md Muzaffar Hossain told investigators that Lt Col (retd) Matiur Rahman shot President Ziaur Rahman during his assassination at the Chattogram Circuit House in 1981, an International Crimes Tribunal prosecutor said yesterday.

Muzaffar also claimed that then army chief Hussain Muhammad Ershad travelled to Chattogram by helicopter on May 28, two days before the assassination, according to ICT Prosecutor Tanvir Hassan Zoha.

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The claims were made during a six-hour interrogation of Muzaffar by the ICT investigation agency yesterday.

“Muzaffar told us that Lt Col Matiur Rahman shot Ziaur Rahman,” Zoha told The Daily Star. He said Muzaffar, when asked about Ershad’s visit, confirmed that the then army chief had flown to Chattogram on May 28. He is currently in custody in connection with a case related to the July uprising.

Muzaffar claimed that, on the instructions of his unit chief, he retrieved the late president’s body the following morning and buried him alongside two security personnel in a hilly forest.

Muzaffar was arrested in Banani on July 15 after remaining at large for nearly 45 years. He was subsequently handed over to the military police.

The ICT later ordered him to be produced before it after prosecutors expressed their intent to question him over his alleged links to former Lt Gen Masud Uddin Chowdhury in a separate crimes-against-humanity investigation.