Assassination of Khaled Mosharraf

On November 7, 1975, Major General Khaled Mosharraf, a former Sector Commander of Bangladesh Forces Sector 2 and K-Force Brigade Commander during the Bangladesh Liberation War, was killed along with two fellow officers following a mutiny that overturned the coup he had staged days earlier.

The killing followed a period of political turmoil in Bangladesh. On August 15, 1975, President Sheikh Mujibur Rahman was assassinated by military officers, after which Khondaker Mostaq Ahmad was installed as President under the direction of those officers. On November 3, 1975, Mosharraf staged a coup d'état, declared himself Chief of Military Staff, and placed the sitting Chief of Staff, Major General Ziaur Rahman, under house arrest. On November 6, Mosharraf was named one of the Deputy Chief Martial Law Administrators.

Colonel Abu Taher, head of the Biplobi Sainik Sanstha (Revolutionary Soldiers' Establishment), organized a counter-coup to free Ziaur Rahman and remake the military along the lines of the People's Liberation Army of China. Taher's organization distributed leaflets portraying Mosharraf, Colonel Shafaat Jamil, Colonel Nazmul Huda, and other November 3 coup leaders as Indian agents, and directed members to kill Mosharraf and Jamil. Colonel Jamil learned of the plot on the night of November 6 but was unable to persuade Mosharraf to act on the warning.

On the night of November 6 into November 7, a mutiny broke out at Dhaka cantonment. Mosharraf fled Bangabhaban with Colonel Haider and Colonel Huda, seeking safety at several locations, including the home of former Jatiya Rakkhi Bahini Chief Colonel Nuruzzaman and the residence of a relative. After confirming assurances of security from Colonel Nawazish Ahmed of the 10th East Bengal Regiment, the three men made their way, after a car accident and a stop at a nursing home, to the regiment's camp at Sher-e-Bangla Nagar, where soldiers disarmed them.

While Ziaur Rahman, freed during the mutiny, directed Nawazish Ahmed and Major Jalil to protect the three men, Colonel Taher — present when the location of Mosharraf was discussed — left the room for a period before the officers were served breakfast. Armed men, described as likely belonging to Taher's Biplobi Sainik Sanstha, then forced Mosharraf and his two companions out at gunpoint and killed them by shooting and bayoneting. Internal military sources state that Colonel Asaduzzaman allegedly led the killing after receiving orders to kill all three officers.