The chief of Bangladesh's largest Islamist political party has been hanged for crimes committed during the country's 1971 war of liberation against Pakistan.
The execution of Motiur Rahman Nizami, head of the Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami party, was carried out at Dhaka Central Jail in the early hours of Wednesday, private broadcaster Somoy Television reported.
Nizami was convicted for genocide, rapes, incitement to religious hatred and other crimes against humanity during the war.
He was convicted of eight out of a total 16 allegations.
Television footage showed several hundred activists cheering the execution at Dhaka's central Shahbagh crossing, hoisting Bangladesh's national flag.
The activists, who have been asking the government to execute war crimes suspects, gathered near the Dhaka University campus as prison authorities were preparing for the execution in the evening.
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