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SRINAGAR: High-level advisers appointed by Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh are recommending autonomy for Kashmir, where militants have fought for 20 years against rule from New Delhi.
Under its accession to India in 1947 upon the country's independence from Britain, Muslim-majority Kashmir was granted autonomous powers over all sectors excluding communications, defence and foreign affairs.
These powers have been eroded over the years. But the advisory group, headed by former supreme court judge Saghir Ahmad, recommended that the prime minister look at various formulations "to restore the autonomy to the extent possible".
The group's report was delivered to the Kashmir chief minister late Wednesday and made public on Thursday.
The Kashmir legislative assembly in 2000 passed a resolution favouring full restoration of the state's autonomy. But India's then government rejected the resolution passed unanimously by the assembly.
Autonomy is the main demand of the ruling National Conference, Kashmir’s biggest pro-India political party, which had moved the resolution in 2000.
The government has not reacted to the report so far.
"We will react only after going through the report. It is a long report," said Ali Mohammed Sagar, Kashmir's law and parliamentary minister.
Dr Singh had appointed the working group in May 2006 to try to find a permanent solution to the unrest in the scenic Himalayan region, which is split between India and Pakistan.
Most of the rebel groups fighting New Delhi's rule want the region to become part of Pakistan. A few support its independence.
India has been dangling the promise of greater autonomy to Kashmiris for many years but the idea has been rejected by the separatists.
- AFP/sc
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