'Kashmir prefers to be independent': Congress leader Saifuddin Soz

Senior Congress leader and former Union minister Saifuddin Soz today created a fresh furore by toeing the line taken by former Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf on Kashmir. Soz said that given a choice, Kashmiris would prefer to be independent.

Soz said, "Musharraf said Kashmiris don't want to merge with Pakistan, their first choice is independence. The statement was true then and remains true now also. I say the same but I know that it is not possible. I am saying it for a long time."

Soz also claimed that Musharraf had shared this view with his military brass and ministers in the government ahead of the then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's Islamabad visit in 2007.