DHAKA, Oct 11: Bangladesh’s new Prime Minister Khaleda Zia saluted the heroes of the country’s fight for independence during her first day in office on Thursday while opponents bombarded her with criticism for including two Islamic politicians in her cabinet.

President Shahabuddin Ahmed also Thursday officially summoned the 300-member legislature to meet on Oct 28 for the first session of the eighth parliament.

Begum Zia and her Islamist-allied coalition were sworn in Wednesday after winning a landslide victory in last week’s election which her opponents alleged was rigged.

The prime minister and members of her government travelled to Savar in western Dhaka Thursday to pay homage at the national memorial to those killed in Bangladesh’s 1971 war of independence from Pakistan.

She also placed a wreath at the grave of her late husband and former president, Ziaur Rahman, who was assassinated in 1981.

Zia spent the rest of the day being briefed by staff before leaving for Saudi Arabia on a pilgrimage to Makkah where she will also call on the king of Saudi Arabia, officials said.

Her appointment of the Jamaat-e-Islami’s chief Matiur Rahman Nizami and its secretary general Ali Ahsan Mujahid as the agriculture and social welfare ministers drew strong protests from her opponents.

Both accompanied Zia to Savar, honouring the war heroes for the first time.

During the election campaign Zia, who heads the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), was denounced by the defeated Awami League and other liberals who said many of her Islamist allies had opposed independence 30 years ago.

“It is a tragedy for the nation that two identified war criminals have been included in the cabinet,” said a statement from the Awami League, led by former prime minister Sheikh Hasina Wajed.

Three leaders of a left-wing alliance left the swearing-in ceremony Wednesday when the names of the two ministers were announced. “The identified collaborators of the 1971 independence war should be removed from the government immediately,” the leftist coalition said.—AFP