DHAKA: Police fired on demonstrators in southwestern Bangladesh on Tuesday, killing two as machete-wielding protesters went on the rampage over the conviction of a senior leader for war crimes.

Several thousand supporters of the country's largest Jamaat-e-Islami took to the streets in Satkhira district, attacking police with sticks and machetes and throwing homemade bombs, officers said. They set upon one officer as police tried to clear a road blocked by fallen trees in the town of Kaliganj.

"They hacked him (the officer) with a machete. We opened fire at them to rescue the officer. Two Jamaat activists were hit by bullets and they died," district deputy police chief Tajul Islam said, adding that eight other police officers were injured.

The war crimes tribunal sentenced Azam, whom prosecutors compared to Nazi leader Adolf Hitler, to 90 years in prison on Monday on five charges of planning, conspiracy, incitement, complicity and murder during the war.

Jamaat, a key member of the opposition, says the trials are aimed at eliminating its leaders. But secular groups say Azam should have been hanged.

Earlier verdicts against Jamaat activists, including three death sentences, plunged the country into its worst political violence since independence. At least 150 have been killed in clashes with police and paramilitary forces since the first sentence was passed in January.

Azam was the fifth leader convicted by the controversial court set up by the secular government.

Businesses and shops were shut nationwide for the two-day strike which started on Monday, while roads and highways were largely empty, bringing inter-district transport to a halt.

Security was tight in the capital Dhaka, with thousands of police patrolling the streets.

Inspector Korban Ali said nine officers were injured during the violent protests in Satkhira district. Tuesday's deaths bring the total number of people who have died in violence surrounding Azam's conviction to five. The opposition has criticised the war crimes cases as politically motivated and aimed at settling old scores rather than meting out justice.