Islamist leader Mufti Wakkas dies at 69

Mufti Muhammad Wakkas, an Islamist leader and former member of parliament, has died at the age of 69.

He breathed his last at the Sheikh Russel Gastro Liver Institute and Hospital in Dhaka at around 4:30 am on Wednesday, said Hifazat-e Islam leader Mufti Faizullah.

Wakkas had served as the senior vice president of the Befaqul Madarishil Arabia Bangladesh, a Qawmi madrasa education board.

He was elected MP from Jashore-5 constituency as an independent candidate in the 1986 elections during the tenure of HM Ershad. Wakkas later joined the Jatiya Party and became a MP again in the 1988 elections.

After the fall of the Ershad government, Wakkas joined Jamiat-e Ulama-e Islam and was elected MP in 2001 as a candidate of the Islami Oikya Jote.

He was a senior leader of Hifazat-e Islam. After the death of Ahmed Shafi, he was not given any post in the new committee of Hifazat.

A funeral prayer for Wakkas is scheduled to be held at a madrasa in Jashore’s Manirampur.