All the subsequent military and civil governments coming to power after the coup of August 15 awarded and rehabilitated the coup leaders politically instead of punishing the self-declared killers of Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.

Following the killing of Bangabandhu, the killers waited more than 24 hours to bury him and made sure the funeral was done in secret.

It was a bizarre moment for the country, medieval in its dark dimensions. In the pre-dawn hours of 15 August 1975, tanks rolled down Sher-e-Banglanagar, right by the Rakkhi Bahini camp, and made their way towards Dhanmondi.

Even before the people of Bangladesh could come to terms with the fact that the nation's founding father had been assassinated, the world media were prompt to pick the putsch for drawing very diverse sorts of analysis.

Pakistan was the first country to recognise the Khandaker Moshtaque Ahmed government on the first day of the bloody changeover on August 15, 1975.

On the dark night of August 15, 1975, a young 22-year-old receptionist at Bangabandhu's residence was least prepared for the assassins, who would storm the house and kill eight people, including the father of the nation, while he himself would lay on the ground bullet-hit.

Lt Col (retd) Mohiuddin Ahmed gave a confessional statement on November 27, 1996, before the court on his involvement in the killing of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.

Wife of Col Jamil recalls how her husband died trying to save Bangabandhu

Lt Col (retd) Sultan Shahriar Rashid Khan gave his confessional statement about the killing of Bangabandhu before the court on December 11, 1996.

Lt Col (dismissed) Syed Farooqur Rahman gave a confessional statement to the trial court, on December 19, 1996, about the killing of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.

ITV Interview with Lt Cols Farooq Rahman (FR) and Abdur Rashid (AR) on August 2, 1976 by Anthony Mascarenhas (AM)

Khanadaker Moshtaque Ahmed had always appeared with a baleful look in his activities even when the Liberation War was being fought.

Six of the 12 convicted killers of Bangabandhu have been holed up in Libya, US, Canada, Pakistan and Kenya, one died in Zimbabwe, and the remaining five are behind bars at home.