Bangladesh tribunal sentences to death 2nd senior Islamist party leader for 1971 crimes

Mir Quashem Ali, a senior leader of the Bangladesh's largest Islamist party Jamaat-e-Islami shows victory sign as he enters a police van after a special tribunal sentenced him to death in Dhaka, Bangladesh, Sunday, Nov. 2, 2014. Ali is the second leader to be sentenced to death in a week for mass killings during the nation's 1971 independence war against Pakistan. (AP Photo/A.M. Ahad) (The Associated Press)

Bangladeshi activists shout slogans demanding punishment for those guilty outside a special war crimes tribunal as they await a verdict in Dhaka, Bangladesh, Sunday, Nov. 2, 2014. A special tribunal in Bangladesh sentenced to death a senior leader of the country's largest Islamist party on Sunday, the second death sentence in a week for mass killings during the nation's 1971 independence war against Pakistan. (AP Photo/A.M. Ahad) (The Associated Press)

A special tribunal in Bangladesh has sentenced to death the second senior leader of the largest Islamist party for his role in the killings during the nation's independence war against Pakistan in 1971.

Mir Quashem Ali was in the dock as Judge Obaidul Hasan read the verdict in the packed courtroom in Dhaka, the capital. The 62-year-old Ali is a member of Jamaat-e-Islami party's highest policy making body and he is considered to be one of top financiers of the party.

Last week, the court sentenced to death the party's leader, Motiur Rahman Nizami, for the 1971 war crimes.

Bangladesh accuses Pakistani soldiers and local collaborators for the deaths of 3 million people during the nine-month 1971 war.