98 Mazda Protege 100k miles - electrical sysytem failure

HI,
I have 98 Mazda protege and the battery went completely dead on me while I was driving. It seemed to me some component was shorting and hence it drained the battery completely.

Anyhow I took it to a mechanic and he said the battery needed to be replaced and replaced it. After he was done in front of him I started the car and as soon as I turned the ignition on there was a clicking noise in the car and all the internal lights were blinking and so were the hazard lights. The mechanic said that it could be a relay and he pulled a relay off and the blinking stopped. However the dashboard lights don't come on since then.

i seriuosly think he screwed somthing up while replacing the battery, but I am not well informed to challenge him. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

thanks
varghese