DHAKA, Jan. 4 (Xinhua) -- Syed Ashraful Islam, Bangladesh's public administration minister and ex-ruling party general secretary, has passed away at 67 in Bangkok after a long battle with cancer.

Islam, who had been re-elected member of the parliament in the national election on Dec. 30, breathed his last at the Bumrungrad Hospital on Thursday night, his personal assistant AKM Sazzad Alam Shahin told journalists in Dhaka.

He said the body of Islam, who had taken his leave of absence from parliament in September last year, will be flown back to his home on Saturday.

He had been chosen as ruling Awami League party's general secretary in 2009 and served for two consecutive terms till 2016.

Islam, son of Syed Nazrul Islam who served as the acting president of Bangladesh in absence of Bangladesh founding father Sheikh Mujibur Rahman during the country's Liberation War in 1971, has then been made a new member of Awami League presidium, the party's highest policy-making body.

President Md Abdul Hamid, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, among others, mourned the death of Islam.