Srinagar: India and Pakistan wrangle over Kashmir's fate, the local government appeals for autonomy within India and rebels battle to join Pakistan. But many, if not most, Kashmiri Muslims want none of the above, they are hoping for independence.

Kashmir held its first of four rounds of voting on September 16 to elect its next Assembly, in polls being boycotted by all major separatist groups.

All rebel groups fighting in Kashmir want India's sole Muslim-majority state to join Pakistan, a view shared by most separatist parties.

But of 50 people surveyed around the Kashmir Valley, the center of the 13-year insurgency, 41 said they wanted independence. Five said they wanted to stay with India and four hoped Kashmir would join Pakistan.

When given a choice only between Pakistan and India, responses were evenly split.

"Neither India or Pakistan, I want to be independent," said 40-year-old businessman Airfan Hasan, echoing statements heard throughout the valley.

After a 1949 ceasefire between India and Pakistan left Kashmir divided between the now nuclear powers, UN resolutions called for a referendum in which Kashmiris could decide their fate.

But the vote has never been held, with India accusing Pakistan of not respecting a clause by failing to withdraw troops sent in the first Indo-Pakistani war.

The National Conference party, which has long ruled Kashmir and is seeking a new mandate in the polls that close October 8, wants the province to be autonomous within the Indian union, with powers over everything save defence, foreign affairs and finance. Kashmir enjoyed such autonomy until 1953.

Most Kashmiri Muslims, though, want outright independence and many say they have no intention of taking part in the provincial election which they believe will do little to resolve Kashmir's fate.

In contrast, there is little passion for independence among Kashmir's religious minorities: Hindus in the Southern Jammu region and Buddhists in eastern Ladakh. Hindu groups have called not for autonomy but for even closer links between New Delhi and Kashmir.

But for many Kashmiri Muslims, India from the beginning has treated the region like an occupying power, discriminating against locals, rigging polls and doing little to improve the economy.

"The way India treats them is not dignified," said Bashir Ahmad Daba, a sociology professor at Kashmir University. Since the start of the insurgency in 1989, "every family has suffered torture and killing," he said.

"The literacy rate is around 50 percent. A lot of money for development was used for corruption. People need peace and development," Daba said.

Kashmir has no real industry, with half of young people unemployed, said Mohammad Dosti, the head of the university's department of economic studies.

He said agriculture was now the top occupation. Tourism to the scenic Himalayan region, once a major source of cash, is only a small fraction of what it was before the insurgency.

Despite some sentimental attachment, Kashmiri Muslims have distanced themselves from Pakistan, which India accuses of arming and training the rebels, said literature professor Hamida Naieem.

"Before 1990 each one, as a Muslim, wanted to be part of Pakistan. But now they feel Pakistan can be brutal," she said.

"Some say the militants made many mistakes, killed people, so that really led to disillusion. In Pakistan, it may be that Kashmir becomes a kind of colony as in India."

At a village near the de facto border, some 150 women who have lost their rebel husbands didn't conceal their rage.

"Pakistan trained them and they got killed by the Indian forces. All of this because Pakistan began the destruction of the state," said one of the women, 45-year-old Noor Begum.

On campus, 22-year-old Sheikh Irfan said the nuclear powers seemed the same.

"India and Pakistan are not able to give full human rights to the people. There are violations there as here," he said.