By TCN News,
Srinagar: Only 2% of residents of Kashmir want to join Pakistan while less than half of them favor independence as a solution to the unrest in the region, an independent survey conducted by British academic Robert Bradnock said. The survey found 44% of people in Pakistan side Kashmir and 43% in the Indian side favoring independence.
Titled “Kashmir: Paths to Peace”, the survey is seen as a rare attempt to assess the opinions of people on both sides of the Line of Control (LOC) – the de facto border that splits the region between the two countries.
[Photo by blogs.reuters.com]
“Any solution will depend on the Indian and Pakistani governments’ commitment to achieving a permanent settlement,” Bradnock has been quoted as saying by Zee News.
United Nations resolutions soon after the partition of the sub-continent in 1947 called for a plebiscite to determine whether the region should belong to India or Pakistan. The resolutions, however, have not been implemented.