Jamaat-e-Islami banned in Bangladesh

• Bangladesh's biggest right-wing party Jamaat-e-Islami was banned from contesting future polls by a court which cancelled its registration in a landmark ruling, leaving the once-most powerful fundamentalist party with an uncertain future.

• In the petition, they said Jamaat-e-Islami was a religion-based political party and it did not believe in independence and sovereignty of Bangladesh.

• The verdict comes at a time when the demand for outlawing the party, blamed for war crimes during the 1971 liberation war against Pakistan, was mounting.

• Several top Jamaat leaders, including its 91-year-old supremo Ghulam Azam, were recently sentenced either to death or to long jail terms for masterminding atrocities during the war.