34 killed in Bangladesh after Jamaat-e-Islami leader ordered hanged

DHAKA: At least 34 people were killed in Bangladesh in a wave of violence on Thursday as protestors reacted furiously to a ruling that one of their leaders must hang for war crimes.

At least 23 of them were shot in clashes between police and protesters that erupted after Delwar Hossain Sayedee, the Jamaat-e-Islami party's vice president, was found guilty of war crimes, including murder, arson and rape.

Sayedee is the third person to be convicted by the controversial domestic tribunal whose previous verdicts have also been met with outrage from protestors who say the process is more about score settling than delivering justice.

Thursday's death toll was compiled by AFP after talking to police in the 15 districts where protests turned deadly. They were the most violent political clashes in more than two decades in the impoverished country's history.

The latest unrest brought the overall death toll to 50 since the first verdict was delivered on January 21.

Among Thursday's dead were four policemen, two of whom were beaten to death after protesters hurled small homemade bombs at a police station in Gaibandha in Bangladesh's north and attacked it with sticks, local police chief Monjur Rahman said.

"At least 10,000 Jamaat supporters attacked us. We were forced to open fire," Rahman told AFP.

About 300 people, including scores of policemen, were also injured, doctors, police and local media said.