Moin was neither accused in the Ziaur Rahman killing case nor was charged with any involvement in the mutiny following Zia's death. Rab handed him over to the army Friday afternoon.

His wife Rousan Ara Islam knew about his whereabouts in Dhaka Cantonment until yesterday morning, but then lost his trace. 'I talked with him over telephone this morning at around 10:30am. After that I have not been able to reach him until now,' Rousan told The Daily Star at 8:00pm.

She said Moin returned to the country from Canada on August 20 on the occasion of his daughter's marriage on September 16.

Rousan expressed surprise at her husband's arrest, saying, 'When they [Rab] came to arrest him, saying you are Major Mozaffar, he [Moin] gave them his identity. But they nabbed him ignoring his claim.'

The nameplate in front of their Mohammadpur home also bears his name, she said, asking why did then Rab arrested him even after noticing that.

There was no report that Moin was involved in Zia killing, while Rousan claimed he was not even in Chittagong when Zia was killed.

'Moin, while working as an instructor at the Infantry School of Tactics in Slyhet in 1981, took a one-month leave and travelled to Dhaka, Barisal and some other districts with his family,' she added.

Asked about the reason for his deserting the army, Rousan said it was because Moin feared he might fall prey to the then ongoing 'wholesale trials of freedom fighters' in court martial. Moin also sent a resignation letter to his office and left the country for the USA and later shifted to Canada in 1989.

Retired Major General Mohammad Ainuddin, who was then a colonel, and one of the officers defending the accusees in the court martial confirmed to The Daily Star that Moin was not tried in the court martial. 'He was not even a charge-sheeted for the mutiny,' Ainuddin added.

Major Mozaffar Hossain, Friday's target of Rab, is one of the 10 accused in the Zia killing case. Major General Manjoor, the prime accused in the case, was killed in Chittagong Cantonment soon after Zia's assassination. Four other accusees -- Col Delwar Hossain, Lt Col Shah Mohammad Fazle Hossain, Capt Rafiq and Capt Jamil were awarded capital punishment.

The rest -- Major Rezaul Karim, Capt Ilias, Major Dost Mohammad and Manir -- were sacked from the army and awarded imprisonment of different terms, with Major Mozaffar absconding since 1981.

The police after investigations submitted a final report in the Zia killing case in 2001, which the Court of Chief Metropolitan Magistrate, Chittagong accepted. The court acquitted the rest of the living accusees in the case from the charges.

Since Major Mozaffar had been on the run since the killing, he was not tried at the court martial for mutiny, Ainuddin said.

Thirteen army men were sentenced to death for mutiny by the court martial. Of them 12 were executed. Only Major Abdul Qayyum Khan escaped death as the then chief martial law administrator HM Ershad pardoned him for ambiguous reasons. Sources said Qayyum left the country soon after his release. However, he is now working in a French organisation in Dhaka.