Bangladesh Chhatra League (BCL) has postponed all celebrations marking its 71st founding anniversary; following the death of Syed Ashraful Islam, the previous cabinet’s minister of public administration.
Chhatra League, the student wing of ruling Awami League, announced this in a press release on Thursday.
The 68-year-old veteran politician passed away—at Bumrungrad International Hospital’s Critical Care Medicine Unit in Bangkok—around 9:45pm Bangladesh Standard Time, his cousin Kabir Hossain told the Dhaka Tribune.
Suffering from stage 4 lung cancer, the former Awami League general secretary had been undergoing treatment at that hospital for several months.
Syed Ashraf was the eldest son of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman’s close associate and national leader Syed Nazrul Islam, who had served as the acting president of Bangladesh during the 1971 Liberation War.