Delwar Hossain Sayeedi, believed to be the second-most important leader of Bangladesh's largest Islamist party, was sentenced to death in capital Dhaka Thursday for war crimes including mass killings.

The International Crimes Tribunal (ICT)-1 pronounced the verdict Thursday afternoon on a crimes against humanity case, awarding death sentence to the Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islmai party's Nayeb-e-Ameer (vice-president) Sayeedi, also a former member of parliament.

Chief Justice of the ICT-1 ATM Fazle Kabir read the summary of the 120-page verdict at a jam-packed court room in the presence of a huge crowd of people particularly journalists and lawyers amid beefed up security measures in and around the tribunal and across the capital city, specially at key points.

About 73-year old Sayeedi, considered a world famous orator on Islam and comparative religion, was indicted in October 2011 with 20 charges of crimes against humanity including looting, killing, arson, rape and forcefully converting people into Muslims during the war.

Bangladeshi Attorney General Mahbubey Alam told reporters that "Eight charges including murder against Sayeedi were proved beyond a reasonable doubt leading to a death sentence to the leader of Jamaat."

Jamaat, allegedly collaborated with Pakistani forces in 1971 to prevent an independent Bangladesh, says Sayeedi is the victim of a political vendetta.

In his opening remarks before pronouncing verdict, the tribunal chief said this verdict is not against a prominent Islamic personality and politician Sayeedi. "We're giving our verdict against that Sayeedi who has been charged with crimes against humanity in 1971," he said.

More than four decades after Bangladesh's independence, ICT-2 on Jan. 21 pronounced its maiden verdict on crimes against humanity case awarding death sentence to the fugitive and expelled Jamaat leader Abul Kalam Azad.

Later the tribunal on Feb. 5 pronounced verdict on a crimes against humanity case awarding life imprisonment to Assistant Secretary General of Jamaat Abdul Quader Mollah.

Jamaat, which has long been demonstrating against the efforts of the government to try war criminals, had enforced a series of hartals demanding the release of nine of its top high-ups, including its spiritual leader Ghulam Azam.

Apart from Jamaat high-ups, a few leaders of ex-prime minister Khaleda Zia's Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) are also facing trials.

After returning to power in January 2009, Hasina, the daughter of Bangladesh's independence hero Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, established the first tribunal in March 2010, almost forty years after the 1971 fight for independence from Pakistan, to castigate those committed crimes against humanity during the nine-month war.

The 18-month-long proceedings of the case at ICT-1 had to negotiate difficult hurdles, including the "Skype controversy", reconstitution of tribunal and rehearing of closing arguments.

The tribunal suffered its big jolt when the judge presiding over the ICT-1 resigned last month after the British magazine The Economist reported that it received e-mails and Skype conversations between the judge and Ahmed Ziauddin, a Bengali citizen who resides in Belgium from an unknown source.

The e-mails and Skype calls reportedly showed that Ziauddin was playing an important role in the proceedings and that considerable pressure was being exerted by the Bangladeshi government to secure a quick verdict.

In protest against the verdict, Jamaat Thursday enforced a nationwide dawn-to-dusk general strike which thousands of Shahbag Square movement protesters vowed to resist and urged all to remain vigilant on the streets.

Thousands of people joined a procession brought out from the Shahbag Square Thursday morning defying the dawn-to-dusk hartal enforced by Jamaat.

Thousands of Shahbag demonstrators, who have been taking to the streets since Feb. 5 demanding capital punishment for the war criminals, expressed their jubilation over the tribunal verdict.

Jamaat says Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's ruling Bangladesh Awami League party has targeted the party to split the ex-Prime Minister Khaleda Zia-led 18-party main opposition alliance in which Jamaat is a key ally.

Both BNP and Jamaat have already dismissed the court as a government "show trial" and said it is a domestic set-up with no United Nations oversight or involvement.

Muslim-majority Bangladesh was called East Pakistan until 1971. Hasina's government said about 3 million people were killed in the war although independent researchers think that between 300,000 and 500,000 died.