Azad is J&K chief minister

6 killed in suicide attack near Sayeed's house

Ghulam Nabi Azad was today sworn in chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir at the head of a 12-member coalition government marking the return of the Congress to the helm of affairs in the state after three decades.

The Bhim Singh-led Jammu and Kashmir Panthers Party, which has four MLAs, chose to keep out of the Azad-led government after having been a constituent of the previous ministry, headed by Mufti Mohammad Sayeed for three years. The party said it would support the new dispensation from outside.

Besides Azad, those who took oath as Cabinet ministers were five People's Democratic Party (PDP) leaders, including Muzaffar Hussain Baig, four Congressmen, including Mangat Ram Sharma, deputy chief minister in the previous government, two Independents from Ladakh and one from the Peoples Democratic Forum (PDF), floated by Independents.

The oath was administered by Governor SK Sinha at the Sher-e-Kashmir International Convention Complex on the banks of Dal Lake.

Azad's elevation to the top post marked the passing of the baton from the PDP to the Congress under a power-sharing agreement worked out by the two parties after the 2002 Assembly elections. Under the accord, Sayeed had headed the government for three years.

There are three new faces, including PDP leader Tariq Hamid Karrah from Batmaloo, an Assembly constituency in Srinagar which had gone unrepresented in the PDP-led government, his party colleague from the Kathua region Jatinder Singh and senior Congress leader Gurcharan Singh Charak.

Baig is likely to be the deputy chief minister in the Congress-led government. The size of the Azad ministry is in sharp contrast to the 37-member council of ministers headed by Sayeed.

Senior PDP leader and former Agriculture Minister Abdul Aziz Zargar, PDF leader and former Revenue Minister HM Yaseen, J&K Congress chief and former Rural Development Minister PM Sayeed also took oath as Cabinet ministers. PDP leader and former Public Health Engineering Minister QM Afzal, former Sports Minister from Kargil Haji Nissar also found births in the Cabinet.

Meanwhile, a suicide bomber today blew up an explosive-laden car on the outskirts of the city killing six people, including himself, and injuring 18 others, hours before Azad was sworn in. The bomber, belonging to Jaish-e-Mohammed, blew the vehicle up near the private residence of outgoing Chief Minister Mufti Mohammed Sayeed when challenged by security forces during a random search.

The militant refused to stop the vehicle and as a constable tried to block his way, he blew up the car at around 11.10 am.

Besides the militant, the constable Nisar Ahmed and four civilians-- Saleema Akhtar of Gulshan Nagar, Mohammed Iqbal Wani of Kanipora, 12-year-old Irshad Ahmad Dar and a yet to be identified person, were killed in the attack, senior superintendent of police Munir Khan said.

The condition of eight of the injured was stated to be serious. Among them were three traffic police constables, hospital sources said.