NEW DELHI, 28 October 2005 — A federal minister from India’s ruling Congress party will be the new chief minister of Indian Kashmir, in line with a power-sharing pact with a regional party, a Congress spokeswoman said yesterday.
Urban Development Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad will replace Mufti Mohammad Sayeed of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), who took power in the troubled state following a historic state election three years ago.
The Congress and the PDP, who run a coalition government in the disputed Himalayan region, had agreed to share power after they ousted the National Conference party.
“The Congress president has decided that for the next three years Ghulam Nabi Azad will be sent there under a Congress government,” Congress spokeswoman Ambika Soni told reporters in New Delhi.
Azad, 56, will be sworn in on Nov. 2.
Analysts had expected Mufti to continue as chief minister because the state is in the midst of relief work for victims of a devastating earthquake that has killed some 1,300 people in the region and at least 54,000 people across the frontier in Pakistani Kashmir.
But pressure from Congress politicians in the state forced the party to name Azad as the chief of the revolt-racked state.
India Offers Pakistan $25 Million for Quake Victims
India disclosed yesterday that it had pledged $25 million in relief assistance to Pakistan for earthquake victims at a donors’ conference in Geneva.
“The government of India has offered assistance of $25 million for relief and rehabilitation of earthquake victims,” Indian Foreign Ministry spokesman Navtej Sarna told reporters in New Delhi.
“The government of Pakistan will be welcome to use this contribution for rebuilding homes and rehabilitating people, reconstructing the infrastructure and restoring essential services,” he added.
The pledge was made by junior statistics and program implementation minister Oscar Fernandes during Wednesday’s donors conference in Geneva.
India had previously sent three consignments of relief material to earthquake victims in Pakistan, including biscuits, medicines, tents, blankets and plastic sheets.
The first consignment of relief material was sent by air on Oct. 10 and the second and third by train, Indian officials said.
Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf, however, has spurned an offer by India to send its helicopters to fly relief sorties into the Pakistani part of disputed Kashmir, where the quake struck.
Kashmiri Leader Calls for LOC Opening
A day ahead of the arrival of an Indian delegation to Pakistan, a pro-independence Kashmiri leader yesterday called for opening the Line of Control (LOC) to facilitate post-earthquake interaction between Muslims living on either side.
“The LOC must be opened on humanitarian basis as early as possible,” the chief of Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) Yasin Malik told a press conference in Islamabad.
Malik, whose JKLF demands an independent Kashmir free of Pakistani or Indian administrative control, had arrived in Pakistan last week from Srinagar with tons of relief goods for distribution in the quake-ravaged areas.
Two Indian Soldiers Killed in Ambush in Kashmir
Two Indian soldiers were killed and more than 10 injured when suspected militants attacked a patrol in India’s Jammu and Kashmir state, news reports said yesterday.
The militants opened fire on the patrol late Wednesday in Mundana, 200 kilometers northeast of the state’s winter capital Jammu, police said.
The two soldiers died on the spot. The militants escaped before the soldiers could retaliate, police said.
The attack came hours after a car bombing by militants near the summer capital, Srinagar. One paramilitary personnel was killed and 19 others, including four civilians, were hurt in that incident.
The violence has continued despite this month’s earthquake that was centered on Kashmir and killed thousands of people, most of them in Pakistani Kashmir.
