Bangladesh PM Hasina's 8-year-old relative killed in Lanka blasts

Ruling Awami League leader Sheikh Fazlul Karim Selim's grandson Zayan Chowdhary, who was reported missing after bombings in Sri Lanka, has died, the reports said.

The boy was having breakfast with his father Moshiul Haque Chowdhary Prince at a restaurant on the ground floor of a luxury hotel in Colombo that came under attack along with several other hotels and churches on Easter Sunday that killed 321 people and injured nearly 500 others.

Selim's younger brother Sheikh Fazlur Rahman Maruf said that Zayan's body would be brought back to Dhaka on Wednesday, the Dhaka Tribune reported.

Zayan's younger brother Zohan Chowdhary and mother Sheikh Amina Sultana Sonia were in their hotel room when the blast occurred. The family went to Sri Lanka on a holiday.

Selim is a cousin of Prime Minister Hasina.

Speaking to Bangladeshi expatriates in Brunei, Hasina urged them to pray for the grieving family.

"Please pray for their safe return," Hasina said.

Selim said his son-in-law Mashiul is now in the intensive care unit ICU of a hospital in Sri Lanka.

Selim said: "I spoke with my family members there in the morning. They said Mashiul's condition is still critical, but he is improving. We will know more after 72 hours."

He said splinters from the blast had hit Mashiul's kidney and liver, and some of them were still in his body.