DHAKA, 25 October — Opposition lawmakers yesterday elected former Prime Minister Hasina Wajed as the minority leader in the 300-member Bangladeshi parliament.

Earlier in the day, the opposition parliamentarians belonging to Hasina’s Awami League took oath before outgoing Speaker Abdul Hamid.

The oath-taking came three weeks after they rejected the election results and threatened to boycott parliament.

Hasina said that despite their taking oath, they were not going to attend the parliament in the ‘absence of conducive situation.’

“We took oath out of respect for our voters, the constitution and the country’s democratic process,” said Hasina, who was defeated by a large margin in the Oct. 1 parliamentary election.

The Awami League has alleged massive rigging and demanded that fresh elections be held but the Election Commission has rejected the demand.

She alleged that the Bangladesh Nationalist Party, now the ruling party, unleashed a reign of terror in the country resulting into killings, loot and plunder and rape of women.

The members of the minority communities were being persecuted, Hasina said. “It reminds the people about the repression carried out by the occupation army during 1971.”

She also accused the former caretaker government and the Election Commission of hatching a conspiracy against the Awami League in league with the BNP-led four-party alliance, whose winning lawmakers had restored former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia to the post she held until 1996.

Khaleda’s alliance, which includes two Islamist parties, won 214 of the 300 parliamentary seats.

The Awami League won 62, significantly lower than the 146 seats it had won in 1996, propelling Hasina to power.

The remaining seats went to other smaller parties and independents.

Hasina said that the people actually voted for her party’s symbol ‘boat’ but it was hijacked through a crude manipulation and rigging.

“People are still stunned by the results,” she said. She said that the voting rights of the people had been usurped by the last election and her party would fight to restore the rights.

The party plans to hold a street rally when the new House convenes Oct. 28.

Awami League has held several street protests demanding new elections and its lawmakers boycotted an earlier swearing-in ceremony.

Women’s group complains

Meanwhile, a Bangladeshi women’s group said yesterday that the Hindu minority in Bangladesh had been subjected to rape, looting and other abuse since the Khaleda government came to this month.

“We have come across at least 10 women from the minority Hindu community who have been raped by political activists from the ruling party,” said Maleka Banu, general secretary of Bangladesh Mahila Parishad (women’s council).

“In one village, criminals entered the house of a Hindu family and raped a woman and her daughter simultaneously in the same room,” she told a news conference in Dhaka.

Leaders of the council, including both Muslims and Hindus, issued a statement describing other cases of abuse and alleging that police and local authorities had refused to come to the help of the victims.

“In one place six women were abducted and confined to a hideout for seven days and raped by gangsters every day,” the statement said.

The group also reported torture, looting, arson and forcible eviction of minority families.

The council demanded immediate action by the Khaleda government for the sake of justice and communal harmony.

Khaleda’s government, which took office on Oct. 10, has dismissed allegations of widespread abuse as propaganda by its political rivals trying to use the minority issue to create instability.

Hindus, who make up about 10 percent of Bangladesh’s 130 million population, have long been seen as supporters of the Awami League.

Political observers speculate that Hindus are now facing the wrath of activists from Khaleda’s victorious party.