October 11, 2001	Thursday	Rajab 23, 1422

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DHAKA, Oct 10: Begum Khaleda Zia, who swept to power in an election this month, was sworn in as Bangladesh’s prime minister on Wednesday and pledged to combat terrorism.

President Shahabuddin Ahmed administered the oath of office to Khaleda and her cabinet in a ceremony at the presidential palace.

Former prime minister Sheikh Hasina has said the Oct 1 election was rigged.

But Khaleda Zia rejects the allegation. “The people have voted us to power,” she said while talking to reporters after being sworn in. “We will try our best to fulfil their aspirations.

“My government’s priority will be to combat terrorism which had robbed the people of peace and deterred development,” Begum Zia said, adding that she would also strive to solve the country’s growing unemployment problem.

Khaleda hoped the opposition headed by her predecessor Hasina would come to parliament to play a constructive role to strengthen democracy.

Khaleda’s Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) and its allies won more than two-thirds of parliament’s 300 seats in the vote, against 62 for Hasina’s Awami League.

Hasina has rejected the results and asked for a fresh election.

Domestic and international monitors said the election, supervised by a non-party caretaker government as required by the constitution, had been largely free and fair. They urged Hasina to accept the outcome.

Khaleda became Bangladesh’s first woman prime minister in 1991, but lost to Hasina in a 1996 poll.—Reuters