He is the third Islamist leader to be convicted in recent months for collaborating with the Pakistani authorities during the 1971 war, in which as many as three million people were killed and more than 200,000 women raped, and when an estimated 10 million people fled to India. Several more such verdicts are expected in the coming months.

The trials and the verdicts, part of a long-delayed reckoning with Bangladesh’s birth, have led to violent strikes and deep unrest in Bangladesh pitting members of Jamaat-e-Islami against youthful progressives who have demanded death sentences for the Islamist leaders.

Each side in the fight has repeatedly called for strikes that have paralyzed the country and wounded its economy, which was already reeling from disasters in its all-important textile industry, including the collapse of the Rana Plaza building, which killed more than 1,100 people. Jamaat-e-Islami called for a strike on Monday in advance of the expected verdict, and at least one person was beaten to death by political activists for failing to heed the strike call, according to local media reports.