SRINAGAR: Kashmiri leaders have seized on Scotland’s referendum on independence to demand that India follow through on a promise to grant a similar vote in the India-held region.

Scotland voted on Thursday on whether to split away from the United Kingdom in a ballot moderate leader Mirwaiz Umar Farooq said was an example of how Kashmiris’ demand for a say on their future could be solved peacefully.

“We hope India will also change its approach and realise the fact that people’s rights can’t be trampled upon,” Mr Farooq said.

India has never carried out a promise made more than six decades ago to hold a plebiscite that would determine the wishes of people of the disputed Himalayan region.

It now considers the entire region of snow-capped mountains and fertile valleys an integral part of its territory and maintains a massive military presence in the Jammu and Kashmir state.

Published in Dawn, September 19th, 2014