Police, protesters clash in Bangladeshi capital

Police have fired tear gas and rubber bullets at stone-throwing protesters in the Bangladeshi capital of Dhaka as a nationwide strike has brought much of the country to a halt.

The Jamaat-e-Islami Party has called for the Thursday strike to protest the trial of its leaders.

The six leaders, who are on trial before Dhaka’s International Crimes Tribunal (ICT), are accused of playing roles in atrocities committed during the 1971 war of independence against Pakistan.

Reports say home-made bombs have exploded in parts of Dhaka, where security is tight with more than ten thousand policemen patrolling key flashpoint areas.

The country’s main opposition group, Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), has backed the strike, as two of its senior officials also face war crime charges.

Opponents call the charges false and accuse the ruling Awami League government of using the ICT, created in 2010 to try war crimes suspects, as a political tool to target the opposition.

Human rights groups have also expressed concern over the fairness of the trials, demanding that they be held according to international laws.

Earlier this month a Muslim cleric was sentenced to death in absentia in the first ICT ruling, while verdicts against two Jamaat leaders are expected in early February.