Former minister and BNP leader M Shamsul Islam has died.
The 87-year-old breathed his last around 1:30am at Dhaka’s United Hospital, where he had been treated from Apr 17 due to old age complicacies, said Shairul Kabir Khan, an official of the BNP chief’s media wing.
He said Islam will be buried at his native Munshiganj on Friday following two funeral prayers in Dhaka — at 10am on the parliament premises and an hour later in front of the BNP headquarters.
A former member of the BNP’s policymaking National Standing Committee, Islam was elected an MP thrice from the Munshiganj-3 constituency.
He served as the envoy to Indonesia during the regime of military dictator and BNP founder Ziaur Rahman.
In the 1991-96 Khaleda Zia administration, he served as the minister for commerce, telecoms and information.
When the BNP formed government in 2001, Islam was put in charge of the land ministry before helming the information ministry.
Islam, who became a member of the party’s policymaking forum in late 1997, remained in the body until the party’s council in 2014.
He is survived by sons, Saiful and Monadir. Islam’s wife Anwara passed away in 2015.