Strike cripples Bangladesh as death toll rises to 80

DHAKA—Schools and businesses were shut on Monday across Bangladesh on the second day of a general strike called by Islamist protesters, as three more demonstrators died in the deadliest violence since independence. Police said the three were killed in clashes in the south and northwest in continued protests over the conviction of Islamist leaders for war crimes, raising the overall toll to 80 since Jan. 21. Sixtyfour of the total have died since the vice president of Jamaat-e-Islami, the nation’s largest Islamic party, was sentenced to death on Thursday. Violent clashes erupted across the impoverished country after Jamaat’s vice president and firebrand Islamic preacher, Delwar Hossain Sayedee, became the third Islamist to be sentenced by a domestic tribunal. Sayedee was found guilty of murder, religious persecution and rape during the 1971 independence war against Pakistan. Jamaat says the process is an attempt by the ruling party to settle scores and not about delivering justice.