AKIPRESS.COM - An Islamist leader has been hanged in Bangladesh for crimes during the war of independence from Pakistan in 1971.

Motiur Rahman Nizami, 73, was executed early on Wednesday (local time), Law Minister Anisul Haq confirmed, BBC reports.

He had been convicted of genocide, rape and torture.

Nizami had led Bangladesh's largest Islamist party, Jamaat-e-Islami. Hundreds of people gathered near his prison in the capital Dhaka to celebrate the hanging.

Nizami was the fifth and highest-ranked opposition leader to be executed since December 2013 for war crimes.

Bangladesh says the prosecutions are needed to heal the wounds of conflict but human rights groups say the trials fall short of global standards and lack international oversight.