Police in Bangladesh said Friday they had arrested the head of a banned Islamist group suspected of planning attacks in the country, and that he had made contact with the Islamic State organization.

A police spokesman said the leader of the Jamayetul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) group, Abdullah Al Tasnim, and six others were arrested early Friday in raids in Dhaka.

Bangladesh's highest court on Wednesday commuted the death sentence on a top Islamic preacher, triggering angry protests by both his Islamist supporters and secular opponents and clashes with police.

In a surprise ruling, the Supreme Court said 74-year-old Delwar Hossain Sayedee should spend "the rest of his natural life" in jail for crimes during the 1971 liberation war with Pakistan.

Bangladesh on Monday approved a law setting a two-year jail term for anyone involved in marrying a girl aged under 18, in a bid to cut the country's notoriously high child marriage rate.

The new law comes days after new U.N. figures showed two-thirds of Bangladeshi girls marry before they reach adulthood. It targets the parents or guardians and the marriage registrar as well as the groom.

Bangladesh's highest court on Sunday rejected appeals by opposition leader Khaleda Zia, clearing the way for her to stand trial on embezzlement charges that could see her jailed for life.

Zia, a two times former prime minister and leader of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), went to the Supreme Court seeking suspension of the proceedings, saying the lower court judge who has been hearing her cases was appointed illegally.

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe arrived in Dhaka on Saturday at the start of a three-day visit to Bangladesh and Sri Lanka aimed at offsetting China's mounting influence in South Asia.

Abe, who is visiting the region to boost economic and security ties, was greeted by Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina at Dhaka airport.

Bangladeshi police fired rubber bullets and tear gas on Wednesday as they clashed with hundreds of activists outside a Dhaka court where the opposition leader is facing trial for corruption.

Transport services in Bangladesh ground to a halt on Sunday as Islamists enforced a nationwide strike to protest at the murder of a television star who presented popular Islamic shows.

Normally congested roads in the capital and other cities were largely deserted as operators of inter-regional bus and lorry services accepted Islamists' demands for the eight-hour strike starting early morning.

An elderly former Bangladesh minister who was sentenced to life in prison for war crimes during the 1971 independence struggle died on Saturday after a prolonged illness, an official said.

Abdul Alim, 84, an opposition official, was convicted and sentenced by the country's war crimes court last October on nine charges including genocide, murder and the persecution of the minority Hindus during the war against Pakistan.

Bangladesh police said on Sunday they have arrested 11 people suspected of trying to sell fake uranium as part of an elaborate scam.

In a series of raids in Dhaka on Saturday, police swooped on the gang and recovered a leather box marked "USSR" containing what some members of the group described as uranium, a senior officer said.

A Bangladesh court on Thursday charged 13 Islamists with murder over a 2001 bomb blast at a political rally in Dhaka that left five people dead.