Protesters clash with police as party enforces strike in Bangladesh over war crimes sentence

DHAKA, Bangladesh – Police clashed for the second day Wednesday with activists from Bangladesh's largest Islamic party, which is protesting the conviction of the party leader in a series of killings during the country's 1971 independence war. More than two dozen small, homemade bombs also exploded in the country's north, but there were no immediate reports of injuries.

Local news reports said at least 10 people had been injured Wednesday in clashes outside Dhaka, a day after the verdict was announced. Street battles across the country Tuesday killed up to four people and injured dozens more.

The clashes came after the Islamic party, Jamaat-e-Islami, ordered a nationwide general strike, shutting down schools and shops, to protest the conviction and sentence of life in prison handed down to Abdul Quader Mollah.

Because of the strike, traffic was thin Wednesday on the usually-clogged streets of Dhaka and schools and most businesses were closed in major cities and towns across the country.

Despite tight security in Dhaka, with security forces patrolling the streets, television footage showed protesters throwing stones at police Wednesday in Dhaka. A local news agency, bdnews24.com, reported that police fired rubber bullets and teargas to disperse protesters in the Narayanganj district near Dhaka, leaving at least 10 people injured.

Local media also reported that at least 25 homemade bombs exploded Wednesday in the northeastern district of Sylhet, but there were no reports of injuries or destruction.

Up to four people reportedly died Tuesday in clashes between police and the party activists in Chittagong, 135 miles (216 kilometers) southeast of Dhaka.

On Tuesday, Mollah was convicted of killing a student and a family of 11 and of aiding Pakistani troops in killing 369 other people. Defense lawyer Abdur Razzaq has said he will appeal the verdict.

Opposition leaders have criticized the war crimes trials, held 40 years after the country won independence from Pakistan, as an effort to weaken challengers to Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's government. Human rights groups have raised concerns about the trials' fairness.

Mollah and five other Jamaat leaders had been charged with committing atrocities during the nine-month independence war against Pakistan. Last month, the tribunal hearing the cases sentenced former party member Abul Kalam Azad to death in the first verdict.

The tribunal was formed by Hasina's government in 2010. Jamaat-e-Islami, a key ally of opposition leader Khaleda Zia, says the trials are politically motivated, and Zia, a former prime minister, has called the tribunal a farce. Authorities deny the claim.

International human rights groups have raised questions about the conduct of the tribunals, including the disappearance — outside the courthouse gates — of a defense witness who was about to testify.

Until it gained independence in 1971, Bangladesh was part of Pakistan, but was geographically separate from the rest of the country. Jamaat campaigned against Bangladesh's independence war and has been accused of forming several groups to help Pakistani troops in killing, rape and arson. The government says Pakistani troops aided, by local collaborators, killed 3 million people and raped 200,000 women.