Bangladesh protest calls for death for war crimes

The protesters in Dhaka urged Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to review a verdict sentencing a senior leader of Bangladesh's largest Islamic party, Jamaat-e-Islami, to life in prison for killings and other crimes.

The protesters said the life term was not enough since a tribunal had found Abdul Quader Mollah guilty of five charges, including playing a role in the killing of 381 unarmed civilians.

The government will appeal the sentence. A lawyer said the defense would also appeal, seeking an acquittal for Mollah, whose verdict is the second after Hasina came to power through a 2008 election and formed a tribunal to try those suspected of war crimes. Both sides have 30 days to appeal to the Supreme Court.

The life sentence comes after a former party member was sentenced to death last month.

The exact number of protesters was difficult to know, but streets near Dhaka University were filled with 1971 fighters, students, political activists, teachers and people from other walks of life. Some organizers put the number at up to 200,000, and Anjan Roy, a television talk show moderator who lost more than a dozen family members and relatives in the 1971 war, told The Associated Press that more than 100,000 people had joined the rally.

Hours after Tuesday's verdict by an International Crimes Tribunal, protesters burst into the street, denouncing the verdict. They protested nonstop since while planning for Friday's mass rally.

Many of the younger protesters said they were not happy with the verdict.