Bangladesh protests against Islamist leader's death sentence turn violent

Police clash with opposition supporters demonstrating against decision to execute Abdul Quader Mollah for war crimes
Bangladesh protests
Bangladeshi security forces stand guard in Dhaka during a strike called by Islamist party Jumaat-e-Islami in protest against the court ruling. Photograph: Munir Uz Zaman/AFP/Getty Images

Supporters of Bangladesh's largest Islamist party have clashed with police amid a nationwide strike called to protest against a court's ruling that one of the opposition party's leaders should be executed for war crimes.

One man was killed when he was hit by a stone thrown by opposition supporters outside the capital, police said.

Bangladesh's supreme court on Tuesday sentenced to death Abdul Quader Mollah, a senior member of the Jamaat-e-Islami party, for committing crimes against humanity during the nation's 1971 independence war against Pakistan.

A five-member panel headed by the chief justice, M Muzammel Hossain, found him guilty of ordering the killing of a family of four during a Pakistani army crackdown in the capital, Dhaka, in March 1971. Mollah and his supporters say the case against him is politically motivated.

Hours after the verdict, Mollah's party said it was calling a 48-hour general strike across the country beginning on Wednesday to denounce the ruling.

TV stations showed clashes on Tuesday between Jamaat-e-Islami activists and police in Dhaka and in several other towns, leaving scores of people injured.

In Dhaka, police detained at least five activists from the party when they clashed with security officials, Bangla Vision TV station said.

On Wednesday, schools and businesses were closed as the strike was enforced. Police fired teargas to disperse opposition supporters who exploded homemade bombs, barricaded roads and threw stones at security officials.

TV footage showed stick-wielding supporters of Jamaat-e-Islami attacking buses and cars that defied the strike.

The man who was killed was having a driving lesson when his vehicle came under attack in Noakhali district, 75 miles (120km) east of Dhaka, said local police chief Anisur Rahman.

Mollah was previously convicted by a special war crimes tribunal in February and sentenced to life in prison. Both the defence and prosecution appealed against the sentence to the supreme court.

The attorney-general, Mahbubey Alam, said Tuesday's verdict was final, with no option for a further appeal through the courts. He said Mollah's family could seek presidential clemency.

The defence counsel, Abdur Razzaq, said they were "stunned" by the court's decision to increase the sentence to death.

The ruling Awami League and its allies welcomed the verdict.

Mollah's party is an ally of the country's main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist party headed by the former prime minister Khaleda Zia, a rival of the current prime minister, Sheikh Hasina.


Zia has accused the government of using trials to weaken the opposition. The government denies the allegation and says it won power in 2008 with an election pledge to prosecute war crimes suspects.

Several other senior leaders of Jamaat-e-Islami have been convicted of similar charges.

The government has defended the legitimacy of the trials, but New York-based Human Rights Watch has raised questions about the impartiality of the tribunal.

The earlier sentence against Mollah also led to protests across the country, both by his supporters and those who said the sentence was too lenient.