Supporters of Bangladesh’s Jamaat-e-Islami party clashed with police on Wednesday amid a nationwide strike called to protest a court ruling that the opposition party’s assistant secretary-general Abdul Quader Mollah 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 Mollah to death for committing crimes against humanity during the nation’s 1971 independence war against Pakistan.
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A five-member panel headed by Chief Justice M. Muzammel Hossain found him guilty of ordering the killing of a family of four during a Pakistani Army crackdown in Dhaka in March 1971. Mollah and his supporters say the case against him is politically motivated.
In Dhaka, police detained at least five Jamaat activists when they clashed with security officials, Bangla Vision TV station said.
The man who was killed was learning to drive when his vehicle came under attack in Noakhali district, said local police chief Anisur Rahman.
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On Wednesday, schools and businesses were closed as the strike was enforced. Police fired tear gas to disperse opposition supporters, who exploded homemade bombs, barricaded roads and threw stones at security officials in some towns.
TV footage showed stick-wielding Jamaat supporters attacking buses and cars that defied the strike.
Attorney-General Mahbubey Alam said Tuesday’s verdict was now final, with no option for another appeal through the courts. He said Mollah’s family can seek presidential clemency.
The ruling Awami League and its allies welcomed the verdict.