March 16, 2007	Friday	Safar 26, 1428

LOS ANGELES, March 15: A former Bangladeshi army officer wanted for his role in the 1975 military-backed coup in the south Asian nation has been arrested in the United States, officials said on Wednesday.

The US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) fugitive operations department raided an address in Los Angeles on Tuesday and arrested Mohiuddin A.K.M. Ahmed, an ICE statement said.

Ahmed, 60, is wanted in Bangladesh for playing a part in the overthrow that resulted in the assassination of the country's first president and founding father, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, according to the statement.

In 1998, Ahmed was convicted by the Bangladesh high court in absentia for his role in the coup and assassination and sentenced to death.

The ICE said Ahmed first entered the US on a visitors visa in 1996 before he was ordered deported by an immigration judge in 2002.—AFP