Indians want Kashmiris to decide own fate: poll

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Indians want Kashmiris to decide own fate: poll

* Results show that majority of Indians and Pakistanis find Kashmir’s independence ‘tolerable’

By Iftikhar Gilani

NEW DELHI: An opinion poll conducted by reputed international agencies has revealed that a majority of people in India want a resolution to the Kashmir issue as per the Kashmiris’ aspirations.

The poll found that people in both India and Pakistan have expressed a readiness to have the Kashmiri people decide their own fate, adding that if the Kashmiris chose independence, a majority of Indians and Pakistanis would find it tolerable. In India, the opinion poll was conducted by reputed agency C-Voter, while in Pakistan, AC Nielson gathered views on behalf of the WorldPublicOpinion.org polling site.

The poll revealed that more than half of the population of India and Pakistan were open to a range of possible outcomes for Kashmir. It found no strong majority opposition on either side to Kashmir becoming an independent country or to dividing the state between Pakistan and India.

“Given the deep roots of the conflict over Kashmir, it is surprising that the conflict has not polarised majority of the Pakistani and Indian people, as they do not fall in line with their governments’ positions,” said Clay Ramsay, the research director of WorldPublicOpinion.org, a project run by the University of Maryland, United States.

In the survey, Indians and Pakistanis were asked to consider a range of possible outcomes for Jammu and Kashmir and to say whether they found them desirable, acceptable, tolerable, or unacceptable.

The idea that received the lowest level of opposition was for Jammu and Kashmir to become independent.

http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp...2008_pg7_3