DHAKA: A special tribunal has sentenced a senior leader of the Jamaat-e-Islaami party to death for his role in the kidnapping and killing of people involving Bangladesh's independence war against Pakistan in 1971.

The verdict came Wednesday in a packed courtroom in the capital, Dhaka, in presence of Jamaat-e-Islami party's Secretary-general Ali Ahsan Mojaheed.

The tribunal found him guilty of kidnapping and killing a journalist, a music director and a number of other people.

Mojaheed faces seven charges including genocide, murder, conspiracy and complicity in atrocities during the war.

He is accused of leading a notorious group that during the war kidnapped and killed many teachers, journalists and writers who supported the cause for independence.

Bangladesh says the Pakistani army killed 3 million people and raped 200,000 women during the war