DHAKA, Bangladesh: A special tribunal in Bangladesh on Thursday sentenced a leader of an Islamic political party to death for crimes during the nation’s 1971 war for independence, a politically charged decision that sparked violent protests that left four people dead.

Delwar Hossain Sayedee, one of the top leaders of Jamaat-e-Islami, was found guilty of eight counts out of 20 involving mass killings, rape and atrocities committed during the nine-month war against Pakistan, prosecutor Syed Haider Ali said. The verdict was announced in a packed courtroom by the presiding judge of the war crimes tribunal, ATM Fazle Kabir.

“Justice has been done to those who lost their loved ones at the hands of Sayedee,” Ali said.

Sayedee is the third defendant to be convicted of crimes against humanity since Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s government initiated the tribunal in 2010.

Lawyers for Sayedee boycotted the tribunal during the verdict, which they said was politically motivated. Sayedee’s lawyer Abdur Razzak said they would appeal.

Jamaat-e-Islami enforced a nationwide general strike Thursday to denounce the trial and to demand Sayedee be freed.

Security forces fired rubber bullets and tear gas at dozens of supporters of Jamaat who smashed vehicles and attacked an office of the ruling Awami League party in Rangpur district, killing two people, a local police official said. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not permitted to speak publicly. Rangpur is 248 kilometers (155 miles) north of Dhaka, the capital.

Supporters of Sayedee clashed with police in Sirajganj district while protesting the verdict, leaving two people dead, private television channel Ekattar TV reported. Police were not immediately available to comment on the reported deaths in that area, which is 104 kilometers (65 miles) north of Dhaka.

Stone-throwing Jamaat supporters also clashed with police in southeastern Chittagong city, injuring dozens of people, Ekattar TV reported. At least 60 vehicles were smashed, it said.

In the tribunal’s first verdict in January, it sentenced former Jamaat leader Abul Kalam Azad to death on similar charges as Sayedee.

Another Jamaat leader, Abdul Quader Mollah, was sentenced to life in prison in February for atrocities committed during the war. Seven other top party leaders are currently on trial for their alleged roles in war atrocities.

Jamaat-e-Islami, the largest Islamic party in Muslim-majority Bangladesh, had campaigned against the 1971 independence war, but denies committing any atrocities.

Jamaat, a key ally of the country’s largest opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party, which is led by former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia, was a partner in Zia’s government from 2001-2006.

Zia’s party has questioned the conduct of the tribunal, saying the trials are aimed at destroying the opposition.

International human rights organizations also have questioned the fairness of the trials, referring to the disappearance of a witness for Sayedee.

Bangladesh says the 1971 war left 3 million people dead, 200,000 women raped and forced millions to take shelter in neighboring India.

Three car bombs struck Sadr City in the north of the city, while one car bomb each exploded in Ameen, Al-Husseiniyah and Kamaliyah in the east, and a roadside bomb blew up in Karrada in central Baghdad, security and medical officials said.

The blasts left at least 15 people dead and around 80 wounded, the officials said.

These latest incidents in a spike in violence come as Iraq grapples with nearly two months of anti-government protests centred on Sunni-majority areas in north and west Iraq, and a festering political crisis in the capital.

The attacks bring the number of people killed in violence this month to at least 150, according to an AFP tally based on reports from security and medical officials nationwide.

No group has yet claimed responsibility for Sunday´s wave of attacks.

But Sunni militants linked to the Al-Qaeda franchise in Iraq often target the Shiite majority in a bid to erode confidence in the central government and push the country back towards the bloody sectarian conflict of 2006-2007.

The Baghdad bombings follow a series of attacks on Saturday that killed five people, including the head of Iraq´s intelligence academy.

Two suicide bombers killed Brigadier General Aouni Ali and two of his guards, and more bombings resulted in the deaths of a judge and an army lieutenant.

Members of the security forces and judicial officials are also often targeted by militants in Iraq.

Sunday´s attacks come amid weeks of rallies in Sunni-majority areas calling for the ouster of Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, a Shiite.

The demonstrations were initially sparked in December by the arrest of several guards of Finance Minister Rafa al-Essawi, a leading Sunni.

The longest-running protests have blocked off a key trade route linking Baghdad to both Jordan and Syria.

As the demonstrations have since expanded markedly, the government has sought to curtail them by saying it has released thousands of detainees and by raising the salaries of Sunni militiamen battling Al-Qaeda extremists.

It has also restricted movements in major cities on Fridays, when the largest protests are staged.

Maliki, meanwhile, has been tussling with a political crisis that has pitted him against many of his government partners barely two months before provincial elections, the country´s first since March 2010 parliamentary polls.