BBC News - 'First' Kashmir survey produces 'startling' results

• BBC News - 'First' Kashmir survey produces 'startling' results

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  • By Alastair Lawson BBC News

  • A survey which a British academic says is the first systematic attempt to establish the opinions of Kashmiris has produced "striking results".

    Robert Bradnock interviewed more than 3,700 people in Indian- and Pakistani-administered Kashmir to assess their views on various issues.

  • It revealed that on average 44% of people in Pakistani-administered Kashmir favoured independence, compared with 43% in Indian-administered Kashmir.

  • Dr Bradnock said that in the Kashmir valley - the mainly Muslim area at the centre of the insurgency - support for independence is between 74% and 95%.

    But in the predominantly Hindu Jammu division to the south, support is under 1%.

  • Dr Bradnock said that it was "clear" that a plebiscite on the future of Kashmir - along the lines envisaged in UN resolutions of 1948-49 - is "extremely unlikely to offer a solution today".

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