Summary ‘Death to Killers’: Protesters demand death to leaders involved in war crimes.
DHAKA (AP) - Thousands of students rallied in Bangladesh s capital on Saturday demanding death to Islamic political party leaders who are on trial for alleged war crimes during the country s 1971 independence war.
Eight top leaders of Jamaat-e-Islami, the country s largest Islamic party, are being tried on charges of mass killings, rapes and arson allegedly committed during Bangladesh s nine-month war of separation from Pakistan.
Earlier this month, a tribunal convicted party leader Abdul Quader Mollah of mass killings during the war and sentenced him to life in prison, a sentence that many Bangladeshis considered lenient.
On Saturday, about 5,000 students shouted "Death to the killers" as they rallied in Dhaka.
The government says it will appeal Mollah s sentence before the Supreme Court this coming week, asking for the death penalty for the 65-year-old.
Saturday s protest came a day after activists from Jamaat and an alliance of 12 other Islamic parties clashed with police across the country, leaving four people dead and around 200 injured, including about a dozen journalists.
After Friday s violence, the Islamic party alliance called a nationwide general strike for Sunday, accusing the police of foiling their protests and alleging that the government is planning to ban religion-based political parties.
The government denies that religion-based parties will be banned.
The main opposition party, the Bangladesh Nationalist Party, led by former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia, said it would back Sunday s strike.
Sunday is a working day in Muslim-majority Bangladesh, where strikes are common opposition tactics to highlight demands.
