NEW DELHI, Sept 28: If mobile phone ring tones are any indication of sentiment, people in occupied Kashmir have plumped for Pakistan over India.

A growing number of people in Occupied 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 occupied Kashmir told the newspaper they had received the anthem from friends in Pakistan and had passed it on to others. "This does not mean Kashmiris want to be part of Pakistan, People just feel closer to it," the Times quoted Ali Mohammad, a taxi driver in Srinagar, as saying.

Mobile phones were only introduced in occupied Kashmir last year by a government operator after security agencies dropped long-standing objections. This month, private operator Bharti Tele-Ventures Ltd, the second largest mobile services firm, began services in occupied Kashmir. -Reuters