If it was a religious issue then people in the districts of Poonch, Rajouri, and Kargil (all of which have non-Kashmiri Muslim majorities) would support it. Instead, most of the people in all of those districts wish to remain in India. Also, if this were a religious issue, then there wouldn’t be a Hindu member of the All Parties Hurriyet Conference, and Kashmiri Sikhs wouldn’t have openly participated in the massive pro-independence demonstrations during the summer of 2008.