Dhaka, March 16 -- Bangladesh's recently elected prime minister, Tarique Rahman, and his government face many urgent challenges but can use this opportunity to bring lasting protections of human rights, nine rights groups wrote in a letter to Rahman published on Monday.

While the widespread rights violations including enforced disappearances and extra-judicial killings under Hasina's rule ended, the interim government "continued to arbitrarily detain political opponents, and was unable to end mob violence" against journalists, religious minorities, and cultural centers, they said.

"Tarique Rahman has been given a wide mandate to bring change, including by many Bangladeshis who risked their lives to overthrow an autocratic government," s...