Srinagar, Sept 11: Jammu and Kashmir Agriculture Minister Abdul Aziz Zargar today resigned from the state cabinet, saying he was being made a victim of a "sinister campaign" aimed at tarnishing his image by linking him to the Laskhar-e-Toiba militants involved in the Akshardham Temple attack. Zargar, a senior leader of People's Democratic Party, announced his decision to resign at a district level party convention in Anantnag town in south Kashmir.

"I am being made a victim of a sinister campaign aimed at tarnishing my image and lowering my prestige in the public eye," said Zargar, maintaining that he was innocent. Official sources said Zargar has sent his resignation letter to Chief Minister Mufti Mohammed Sayeed. He is the first minister to resign since the PDP-Congress government came to power in the state late last year.

The minister had been at the Centre of a controversy ever since an arrested LeT militant, Chand Khan, reportedly told investigators that the ultras responsible for the Akshardham Temple attack, in which 32 people were killed, had used Zargar's native house in village Manzgam as a hideout.

Zargar said he was innocent and had no knowledge that his native house had been used by let militants as he had migrated from the area immediately after the eruption of militancy in the state. Bureau Report