Bangladesh's Jamaat calls for strike for Wednesday amid court upholding of leader's death penalty

Bangladesh's largest Islamist party Jamaat has called for a countrywide strike for Wednesday in protest of the apex court verdict that upheld its key leader penalty for war crimes.

Hours after Bangladesh's Supreme Court upheld the death penalty for Mir Quasem Ali, Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islmai party's central executive committee member, Jamaat called for the countrywide dawn-to-dusk strike from 6:00 a.m. (local time) on Wednesday.

Jamaat made the call in a statement on Tuesday.

Security has been beefed up in Dhaka and elsewhere in the country after the verdict against Ali, 64, who is now behind the bar.

Ali is well known as a key financier of the political party Jamaat-e-Islami.

In June 2014, Ali was arrested from the offices of his newspaper Naya Diganta, a leading Bengali daily.

Attorney General Mahbubey Alam told journalists shortly after the final apex court ruling that there was no legal bar to execute condemned killer unless he sought presidential pardon.

As per procedure, Alam said death-row war criminal would be asked whether he would seek presidential clemency.

A certified copy of the full review verdict has been sent to the Dhaka Central Jail through proper channel.

Khandaker Mahbub Hossain, principal counsel for Ali, said that the Jamaat leader and his family would make the decision on whether to seek president's mercy

He said they would seek a chance from the authorities to meet him.

Jamaat has dismissed the court as a government "show trial," saying it is a domestic set-up without the oversight or involvement of the United Nations. Enditem