HAKA, Bangladesh, Nov. 25 (Agence France-Presse) — The High Court has ordered the government of Bangladesh to explain its failure to take steps to protect the Hindu minority in this Muslim-dominated country, judicial officials have said.

This weekend, the court gave the government one month to explain why it should not be asked "to take proper steps to protect the country's religious minorities from terrorist attacks on minorities," the judicial officials said today.

Judges Abdul Matin and Marziul Huq issued the order late Saturday following a petition filed by a legal rights group that claimed that both before and after last month's national elections, "the minorities came under various threats, attacks and persecution and were subjected to looting of their properties."

The Oct. 1 elections ended in a victory for Prime Minister Khaleda Zia and her Islamist supporters over her longtime rival, Sheik Hasina.

The government has denied that Hindus have been attacked.

Citing what it said were its own investigations and newspaper reports, the legal rights group, Ain-O- Salish Kendra, also claimed in its petition to the High Court that women and even children had been subjected to rape.

In a related development, a journalist who is known as a campaigner against Muslim fundamentalism has been arrested for alleged antistate activities.

He had just returned from neighboring India, where he was interviewing Bangladeshi Hindus who said they had fled attacks.

Indian officials say Bangladeshi Hindus have been pouring into India to escape attacks after the Islamist- allied government came to power.

A judge today rejected a request by the journalist, Shahriar Kabir, for bail, and granted police two days to question him.

Mr. Kabir has filmed and written about alleged attacks on Bangladesh's minority Hindu population, who represent around 10 percent of the country's 130 million people. Muslims account for almost 90 percent.

A government statement said Mr. Kabir was "involved in a heinous bid to tarnish the image of Bangladesh and its government."

It said items seized from him, including pictures and video footage, were "objectionable, misleading, instigating and provocative to destroy communal harmony."

The Daily Star newspaper on Sunday strongly criticized the government for arresting the journalist, saying "whatever Shariar Kabir has said were public statements and there is nothing which suggests anti- state activities." Other dailies also criticized the arrest and called for Mr. Kabir's release.

The Indian police said they arrested nearly 250 Hindu Bangladeshis in the past three days for illegally crossing the border into eastern India.