National

Ex-state minister for religious affairs Wakkas dies

Former state minister for religious affairs Mufti Muhammad Wakkas has passed away. He was 73.

He breathed his last while undergoing treatment at a hospital on Babar road in the capital 4:45am on Wednesday. 

Mawlana Abdul Malek Chowdhury, Joint Secretary General of Jomiyot e Ulama e Islam, confirmed the death to Jago News. 

Wakkas will be buried at Manirampur in Jashore after Maghrib prayer, said Malek Chowdhury.

He was elected to parliament from Jessore-5 as a Jatiya Party candidate in 1986 and 1988. He served as the state minister of religious affairs in the Hussain Mohammad Ershad Cabinet. He was elected to parliament from Jessore-5 as a Bangladesh Nationalist Party candidate in 2001. He was a member of Hefazat-e-Islam Bangladesh.