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Photo: The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.

Bangladeshi youth gesture while celebrating the death sentence awarded to Jamaat-e-Islami leader Delwar Hossain Sayedee in Dhaka, Bangladesh, Thursday, Feb. 28, 2013. A special war crimes tribunal in Bangladesh on Thursday sentenced Sayedee, the leader of an Islamic political party to death for crimes stemming from the nation's 1971 fight for independence, a politically charged decision that sparked violent protests. (AP Photo/Pavel Rahman)

Bangladesh police say 42 people have been killed in rioting sparked by a special tribunal's death sentence for an Islamic political party leader convicted of war crimes.

Top Jamaat-e-Islami leader Delwar Hossain Sayedee was sentenced Thursday for mass killings, rape and atrocities committed during the independence war against Pakistan in 1971.

The politically charged verdict sent his supporters into the streets, where they clashed with police, attacked government offices, and uprooted railway tracks in parts of the country.

Police and witness said Friday that 42 people had been killed.