The 1971 war of independence, in which the Pakistan Army and local Muslim League and other Islamic party allies are accused of killing between 500,000 and three million civilians and raping thousands of women, continues to overshadow Bangladeshi politics today. Efforts to bring to justice those accused of atrocities in the war have exposed the scale of division in the country. Thousands joined protests in Dhaka's Shahbag area last month after one of the tribunals sentenced another Jamaat leader, Abdul Quader Mollah, to life imprisonment, which was widely seen as lenient.