The trial and subsequent conviction and sentencing of a Islamist party leader has led to strikes, protests and violent clashes in Bangladesh. Delwar Hossain Sayedee, one of the top leaders of Jamaat-e-Islami, was found guilty on eight of 20 counts involving mass killings, rape and atrocities committed during the nation’s nine-month war of independence against Pakistan in 1971, prosecutor Syed Haider Ali said. Sayedee, 73, is the third defendant to be convicted of crimes against humanity since Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s government initiated the war crimes tribunal in 2010.
March 1, 2013 Bangladeshi police officers disperse protesters in Rajshahi, Bangladesh. Protesters quarreled with police for a second day Friday as the death toll rose to at least 44. The clashes were triggered by a death sentence given to Delwar Hossain Sayedee, one of the top leaders of the country's largest Islamic party, Jamaat-e-Islami, for crimes linked to Bangladesh’s 1971 war for independence, police said. AP