DHAKA: Thousands of students have rallied in Bangladesh's capital demanding death to several Islamic political party leaders who are on trial for alleged war crimes during the country's 1971 independence war.

Eight top leaders of Jamaat-e-Islami, the country's largest Islamic party, are being tried on charges of mass killings, rapes and arson during Bangladesh's nine-month war of separation from Pakistan.

Earlier this month, a tribunal convicted party leader Abdul Quader Mollah of mass killings during the war and sentenced him to life in prison, a verdict considered lenient by many Bangladeshis.

On Saturday, about 5,000 students shouted "Death to the killers" as they rallied in Dhaka, the capital.

The government says it will appeal Mollah's sentence before the Supreme Court this coming week, asking for the death penalty for 65-year-old.