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Demonstration
in Jammu City against the new government
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By
IOL South Asia Correspondent
NEW
DELHI, November 2 (IslamOnline) - Mufti Mohammad Sayeed was sworn in as
the ninth chief minister of Jammu & Kashmir by governor Girish
Chander Saxena at Srinagar this afternoon soon after a rebel grenade
attack on Mufti’s home on Saturday, November 2.
Mufti
will be chief minister for three years, thereafter Congress nominee will
take over as chief minister for the remaining three years of the life of
J&K legislative assembly.
People’s
Democratic Party (PDP) leader Mufti Mohammed Sayeed and his daughter
Mehbooba Mufti, who is also a prominent PDP leader, were at home at the
time of attack. The grenades that fell a little away from their
residence did not hurt anyone. Mangat Ram Sharma of the Congress Party
was sworn in as deputy chief minister.
The
nine-member cabinet includes PDP’s Muzaffar Hussain Beig and Ghulam
Hasan Mir as well as Congressmen Peerzada Mohammed Sayeed and Madan Lal
Sharma. Harsh Dev of Panthers Party, too, got a cabinet position. Three
days later more ministers will be inducted.
Two
ministers of state from Ladakh's Leh and Kargil regions will also take
oath of office. The PDP-Congress coalition government is being supported
from outside by the Peoples Democratic Front (PDF), a group of
independents, and Communist Party of India (Marxist).
Mufti
Sayeed has vowed to fight corruption, cross-border terrorism, protect
human rights, prosecute rights violators and try to arrange talks
between militants and the Centre.
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Mufti
Sayeed taking oath of office in Srinagar today
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Sayeed
is already making gestures to militants by pledging to release all
people held without serious charges against them. An important militant
of Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front ((JKLF), Showkat Bakhshi, was
released from prison after 12 years Friday, November 1.
Bakhshi
was one of the accused in the kidnapping of Sayeed’s daughter Rubaiya
in 1989. The new government’s gestures like the release of unjustly
held prisoners will bring relief to the people.
The
swearing-in came in the backdrop of fresh violence that claimed seven
lives, including three village girls, who died while they came in
contact with ammunition. The girls were collecting firewood when the
accident occurred.
Suspected
militants shot dead today a member of National Conference in Srinagar as
well as a local leader of the Congress Party. Three more people died
reportedly at the hands of militants.
Sayeed’s
major steps for confidence-building include disbanding the
anti-militancy task force of the police, which has been involved in
extortion, extrajudicial killings and human rights abuses.
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