 |
||||||||
 |
||||||||
|
||||||||
|
Violence punctuates Kashmir inauguration©Associated PressNovember 3, 2002 SRINAGAR, India -- Within hours of taking office Saturday, Kashmir's new government was hit with a series of reminders of the difficulties it faces. Attackers hurled grenades at the home of the state's chief minister and a series of other violent incidents claimed 16 lives. A decades-old political era dominated by the National Conference party ended in Jammu-Kashmir as Mufti Mohammed Sayeed, a leader of the People's Democratic Party, was sworn in as chief minister -- the state's top elected official. Three hours before his inauguration, Sayeed survived a grenade attack on his home in Srinagar by suspected Islamic militants. He was inside the house but unhurt. One of his guards was injured. The attack on Sayeed came after a Pakistan-based Islamic rebel group, Al-Umar Mujahedeen, warned his People's Democratic Party on Saturday against joining the new government. In a statement faxed to various newspapers in Srinagar, Mushtaq Ahmad Zargar, the rebel group's top commander, warned Sayeed of "forceful action" if he joined the new coalition, which he described as an "Indian puppet government." As the ceremony continued, Indian soldiers killed 12 suspected Islamic guerrillas as they tried to enter from Pakistan-controlled territory across the disputed Kashmir frontier, approximately 155 miles southwest of Srinagar, police said. Firing continued for more than three hours in the Saujian area, about 130 miles northwest of Jammu. Saujian is in the Punch district near the Line of Control, the 1972 cease-fire line that divides Kashmir between India and Pakistan. Meanwhile, as delegates returned to their homes from the inauguration ceremony in Srinagar, unidentified attackers shot and killed a local leader of the Congress party and his two police guards at a busy bus station. One civilian was also wounded in the attack. The gunmen fled. Soon after, a police officer was shot by suspected rebels in Lal Chowk, Srinagar's main town square. Four grenades were lobbed at a post of the paramilitary Border Security Force. No injuries were reported. Pakistan-based Islamic militants had threatened to kill political candidates in the recent state legislature elections in Indian-controlled Kashmir. The runup to the polls was marred by several attacks and killings, including that of a government minister. India accuses Pakistan of backing militants who have fought for Kashmir's independence or its merger with Pakistan since 1989. They called for a boycott of the election and threatened voters and candidates. More than 61,000 people -- mostly civilians -- have been killed in the violence that has sapped the resources of this affluent state. No party won an outright majority in the Kashmir election. After a weeks-long political deadlock, eight ministers were also sworn in for the state's coalition government -- two from Sayeed's PDP, three from the Congress party, one from the Hindu-dominated Panther's Party and two independents.
 © 2006 • All Rights Reserved • St. Petersburg Times
490 First Avenue South • St. Petersburg, FL 33701 • 727-893-8111 
|
From the Times wire desk
From the AP |
