Srinagar, India (CNSNews.com) – The U.S. presidential campaign is drawing considerable attention in Indian-administered Kashmir, as the disputed region’s inhabitants ponder what the outcome will mean for them.
Many Muslim Kashmiris who support independence for the Himalayan region or incorporation into Pakistan are hopeful that Democratic Sen. Barack Obama will win. They believe he will address Muslim grievances throughout the world because of his Muslim heritage.
“Obama has Muslim ancestry and he would definitely help the Kashmir issue get resolved,” said Gulzar Ahmad, a businessman here. “I would like to see him there on the highest seat of power in U.S.”
Kashmir is divided between India and Pakistan, and has been claimed by both since the two attained independence from Britain. A portion of it also lies under Chinese control. More than 70,000 people have been killed during an Islamic anti-Indian insurgency and Indian security operations over the past two decades.
Recent months have seen some of the biggest public protests against Indian rule in 20 years, and at least 70 people have been killed, most shot by Indian soldiers.
India accuses Pakistan of backing and arming Islamic militants fighting to end Indian rule in Kashmir; Pakistan insists it lends only moral support to what it calls the fight for self-determination.
Some Kashmiris doubt much will change in U.S. policy whoever wins the presidential election.
While Pakistan has become an important, if erratic, ally in the post-9/11 anti-terror campaign, India’s relationship with the U.S. has also strengthened significantly.
“I am following the U.S. elections like anything, but I don’t feel any change would occur in the country’s foreign policy [regarding Kashmir],” said Sayeda Afshana, a journalism teacher at the University of Kashmir.
She doubted either Obama or Sen. John McCain as president would change the status quo, “since it will offend India.”
“The degree of flexibility may vary a little bit but whoever wins, he would not like to dampen relations with India which are at its peak currently,” Afshana said.
During his campaign, Obama has mentioned Kashmir, saying he would encourage India and Pakistan to resolve the dispute and to sign the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty. The neighbors are both nuclear-armed.
How the next president handles the Kashmir issue will be closely tied to his broader policies in South Asia.
Obama recently came under fire for saying he would pursue terrorists inside Pakistan if that country’s authorities were unwilling or unable to act. McCain called the tough talk naive.
Although the Republican candidate has not ruled out such actions – stressing instead that “you don’t say that out loud” – his stance in contrast to Obama’s has won him support in some quarters in Kashmir.
Shazia Khan, a human right activist, said U.S. attacks on Pakistan’s western borders would only please India.
On the other hand, she said, a “stable Pakistan would guarantee both [a] stable Kashmir and stable minorities living in Hindu-majority India.”
Sajad Lone, a separatist politician who is spearheading a boycott of elections in the region scheduled for November 17, said that whoever the next U.S. president is he should understand that “Kashmiri resistance against Indian occupation” is indigenous.
“I wish them luck and I hope that both McCain and Obama would pursue a policy that could facilitate [a] solution of the Kashmir issue according to the wishes of Kashmiris,” said Lone, leader of the Jammu and Kashmir People’s Conference, a key separatist political party.