HIGHLIGHTSNew Chief Minister Favours Talks with Kashmiri Nationalist Groups Fighting for Self-determination|*|Al-Nasreen Nationalist Resistance Group Claims Responsibility for Grenade Attack, Warns of More to Come|*|Indian Army Claims to Have Killed a Dozen Suspected Kashmiri Nationalist Fighters|*|Kashmiri Nationalists Kill 14 Indians Including a Congress Party Worker|*|
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STORY: The new chief minister of Indian-ruled Jammu and Kashmir state was sworn in on Saturday just hours after suspected Kashmiri nationalist fighters tried to blow up his house.

Mufti Mohammad Syed, 66, favors talks with nationalists battling Indian rule in the disputed Himalayan territory to end a 13-year-old uprising for self-determination that has claimed at least 35,000 lives.

Kashmir has been the trigger of two of the three wars fought between India and Pakistan since independence in 1947 and Syed's coalition does indeed have its work cut out.

"Let us not underestimate the problems that the government faces," said political analyst Kalim Bahadur who teaches at New Delhi's Jawaharlal Nehru University.

"The Kashmiri people need peace, stability and economic development."

Hours before the swearing-in ceremony, nationalist fighters threw grenades at Syed's house, injuring a police constable. Syed, who was at home at that time, escaped unhurt and there was no damage to the house.

A previously unknown nationalist resistance group, Al-Nasireen, claimed responsibility for the grenade attack and warned of further violence against the chief minister and legislators supporting him.

Nearly a dozen nationalist groups are fighting New Delhi's rule in Jammu and Kashmir.

Indian army officials said border guards killed at least a dozen suspected Kashmiri nationalists in a gun battle near the Line of Control which divides Pakistan and Indian Kashmir.

An official said the men were believed to be trying to return to Pakistan after having entered India. Casualties on the Indian side were not immediately known.

Elsewhere in the region 14 people including a Congress party worker and his two guards, were killed in separate shootouts between security forces and Kashmiri nationalists.

PHOTO CAPTION

Mufti Mohammed Syed, flanked by security guards, waves to a crowd after taking the oath as chief minister of India's Jammu and Kashmir state, in Srinagar November 2, 2002. The 66-year-old Indian former home minister was sworn in as chief of the Indian-ruled state, just hours after suspected Kashmiri nationalist fighters tried to blow up his house. Photo by Fayaz Kabli/R