Former Bangladesh Nationalist Party lawmaker Nasiruddin Ahmed Pintu, a convict in BDR carnage case, died at Rajshahi Medical College Hospital (RMCH) on Sunday afternoon.  

Assistant sub-inspector of RMCH police box Chanchal said Pintu was taken to the RMCH at noon after he complained of chest pain.

He breathed his last at the hospital at about 12:20noon.

Rais Uddin, head of RMCH cardiology department, said Pintu might have died of cardiac arrest before he was taken to the hospital.

On 5 November 2013, Pintu, also a former president of BNP’s student wing Jatiyatabadi Chhatra Dal, had been sentenced to life term imprisonment in the country’s largest-ever case of killing at the Pilkhana Headquarters of now-defunct Bangladesh Rifles (BDR) in February, 2009.

Pintu was awarded punishment for instigating the mutineers to carry out the massacre that left a total of 74 people, including 57 army officials, killed inside Pilkhana.

He was shifted to Rajshahi Central Jail from Narayanganj on 20 April, said DIG Prison (Rajshahi division) Bazlur Rashid.  

He said they are in a process of completing the necessary steps to hand over Pintu’s body to his relatives.

Pintu had filed nomination to contest April-28 Dhaka South City Corporation polls for mayoral post, but the Election Commission cancelled his nomination during scrutiny.

He had been arrested in June, 2009 in connection with the border guard BDR mutiny case.

Pintu was detained by the police as he emerged from the High Court after seeking a 'no arrest or harassment' order in the BDR mutiny case.

He had been married with Nasima Akater Kalpana, a sister of former ward councillor of Dhaka City Corporation Saidur Ragman Newton.

BNP chairperson’s media wing member Sayrul Kabir Khan said Pintu’s eldest son has been studying at a university in Canada, while the younger one at Scholastica, Dhaka.

He said Pintu’s body will be taken to Dhaka from Rajshahi tonight (Sunday night) and then be kept at a hospital mortuary.