Bangladeshs største islamistiske parti, Jamaat-e-Islami, har gått amok etter at en av deres ledere ble dømt til døden for forbrytelser under løsrivelsen fra Pakistan i 1971.

Krigen, der Vest-Pakistan forsøkte å tvinge Øst-Pakistan til å oppgi selvstendighetsdrømmen, kostet tre millioner mennesker livet. Den er nesten glemt. Men ikke i Bangladesh.

Delawar Hossain Sayedee, one of the top leaders of Jamaat-e-Islami, the country’s largest Islamic party, was sentenced to death on Thursday by a war crimes tribunal for atrocities committed during Bangladesh’s 1971 war of separation from Pakistan. The sentence set off rioting across the country, killing at least 46 people, including the two in the latest fighting, the authorities said.

Mr. Sayedee, 73, is the third defendant to be convicted by the tribunal, which was set up in 2010 by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s government. He was accused of involvement in looting and burning villages, raping women and forcing people to convert to Islam.

An additional seven top leaders of Jamaat, including its chief, Matiur Rahman Nizami, are on trial facing war crimes charges.

Jamaat campaigned against Bangladesh’s nine-month war of independence and formed some auxiliary forces to help the Pakistani troops, but it has denied committing atrocities.

Bangladesh says that during the war, three million people were killed, 200,000 women were raped and millions of others were forced to flee the country.