Mufti Muhammad Wakkas, president of a section of Jamiat-e Ulama-e Islam and former state minister for Religious Affairs, died at a hospital in the capital early Wednesday. He was 69.
Confirming the matter, Hifazat-e Islam leader Mufti Faizullah said he breathed his last around 4:30am at Sheikh Russel Gastro Liver Institute and Hospital in Dhaka.
Wakkas was the senior vice president of Qawmi madrasa education board Befaqul Madarishil Arabia Bangladesh.
During the term of HM Ershad, he was elected MP from the Jashore-5 constituency as an independent candidate in the 1986 elections.
Wakkas later joined the Jatiya Party and ran for Parliament again in 1988 winning once more.
Wakkas joined Jamiat-e Ulama-e Islam after the Ershad government had fallen, and was elected MP in 2001 as an Islami Oikya Jote candidate.
He was a senior figure in the Hifazat-e Islam movement. However, he wasn't given any role in the new Hifazat committee after Ahmed Shafi''s death.
