10 January 2016•Update: 10 January 2016
SRINAGAR, Jammu Kashmir
NN Vohra, the governor of Indian-held Kashmir (IHK), assumed responsibility for the region on Saturday after partners in IHK’s ruling coalition failed to communicate their response to the formation of the state government following the death of Mufti Mohammad Sayeed, IHK’s sitting chief minister.
Sayeed died on Thursday morning. His daughter, however, who had been poised to serve as the next chief minister, refused to take the oath of office while mourning her late father, leading the governor to assume control of the region.
On Saturday evening, Vohra issued a formal statement announcing the imposition of the governor’s authority.
In recent years, the disputed Indian-held region has been run by a local coalition including the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) and the rightwing Hindu Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
Sayeed, who passed away at the age of 79, had headed the government until his death on Thursday.
India’s only Muslim home minister, Sayeed and his daughter, Mehbooba Mufti, founded the PDP in 2001.
It was Sayeed’s second term as chief minister of IHK. He had held the post for three years from 2002 and then again in 2014, when his party entered into a much-criticized coalition with the BJP.
If Mehbooba, 56, succeeds her father to the post, she will become the first woman to head the disputed region’s Indian-sponsored government.
"Governor’s rule will last a few days, as Mehbooba cannot swear the oath and assume office right now as she is mourning her father’s death," a PDP spokesperson told Anadolu Agency.
She will likely take the oath, the spokesman added, on Thursday at the earliest.
Kashmir, a Muslim-majority Himalayan region, is held by India and Pakistan in parts and claimed by both in full.
Pakistan and India have fought three wars -- in 1948, 1965 and 1971 -- since the partition of the latter in 1947, two of which were fought over Kashmir.
Since 1989, Kashmiri resistance groups in IHK have fought Indian rule to demand independence or unification with neighboring Pakistan.
More than 70,000 Kashmiris have been killed in the violence so far, most of them by Indian forces. India maintains over half a million troops in the IHK.
