Senior BNP leader Tariqul Islam has died while being treated at a Dhaka hospital
The 72-year-old breathed his last on Sunday at the city’s Apollo Hospital, BNP chief’s media wing member Shairul Kabir Khan told Bangla Tribune.
He has left behind his wife and two sons.
Tariqul, who sat on the BNP’s policymaking National Standing Committee, served as a minister in the Khaleda Zia administration.
He had been irregular in political activities in the past few years due to his health condition.
The last meeting of the BNP’s policymaking forum attended by Tariqul was in February this year before party chief Khaleda was jailed for graft.
Born in Jashore on Nov 16, 1946, Tariqul completed his undergraduate and postgraduate degrees in Economics from the Rajshahi University and was involved in leftist student politics.
He later joined Ziaur Rahman’s BNP and remained a member of the party until his death.
Tariqul was elected as a lawmaker four times from his Jashore constituency and served as the information minister and then the environment and forest minister under the 2001-6 Four-party Alliance government.
Under the 1991-96 Khaleda administration, he served as the social welfare minister and then the post and telecommunication minister.