Pakistani anthem rings out across Kashmir

NEW DELHI: If mobile phone ring tones are any indication of sentiment, fighting-weary Kashmiris have plumped for Pakistan over India.

A growing number of people in Kashmir are choosing Pakistan’s national anthem as the ring tone on their newly allowed mobile phones, the Times of India said on Tuesday.

Students in Muslim-majority Kashmir, where India is struggling to quell a 15-year freedom campaign, told the newspaper they had received the anthem from friends in Pakistan and had passed it on to others. “This does not mean that the Kashmiris want to be part of Pakistan, people just feel closer to it,” the Times of India quoted Ali Mohammad, a taxi driver in Srinagar, as saying.

A government operator introduced mobile phones in Kashmir last year after security agencies dropped long-standing objections. This month, private operator Bharti Tele-Ventures Limited, the second largest mobile services firm, began providing services. India holds 45 percent of the bitterly contested Kashmir, Pakistan a third and China the rest. India and Pakistan have started talks to find a solution to the decades-old Kashmir dispute. reuters

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