Dhaka: Bangladesh executed the leader of the country`s largest Islamist party Tuesday for war crimes, just days after he lost a final appeal to overturn the death sentence, a government minister said.

Motiur Rahman Nizami, leader of the Jamaat-e-Islami party, was "hanged just before midnight" Tuesday local time (1800 GMT) at a prison in the capital Dhaka, Law and Justice minister Anisul Huq told AFP.