Bangladesh set to execute opposition leader

         
Authorities in Bangladesh say they are ready to execute a leader of the country's largest Islamic party who was convicted of war crimes.
     
Inspector General of Prisons Mainuddin Khandaker said Tuesday evening that Abdul Quader Mollah of the opposition Jamaat-e-Islami party would be hanged shortly after midnight at Dhaka's Central Jail.
     
Extra police were stationed in the capital, and paramilitary guards were on standby across the country in an attempt to head off violence.
     
A Supreme Court ruling in September ordering Mollah's death sentence triggered deadly clashes and a nationwide strike.
     
It would be the first execution in trials begun by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in 2010 of suspects accused of crimes during the nation's war of independence against Pakistan in 1971.
     
Mollah's party says the trials are politically motivated.
 

AP