Updated

The new leader of a pro-India party has become the first woman to become the chief minister of Indian Kashmir following the death of her father, the region's top elected leader.

Mehbooba Mufti took the oath of Monday after her Peoples' Democratic Party and India's ruling Bharatiya Janata Party ended a nearly three-month deadlock over forming the state government.

The chief minister's post had fallen vacant after Mufti's father and PDP founder Mufti Mohammed Sayeed died in January.

Since then, Mufti was reluctant to continue her party's coalition with the Hindu nationalist BJP without an assurance from its leaders that they would take "confidence building" steps to improve the restive Himalayan region. Details of her agreement with the BJP remain unclear.