Sighting Report Revives Hopes On Hostages

A police officers statement has suddenly revived hopes of the four hostages abducted by Al-Faran being alive. The officer, not directly involved in tracing the hostages, has his unit posted in the remote areas of Doda district on routine security duty. He happened to meet a villager in the Alpine region of the hilly Doda district who told the officer that the hostages stayed at his house for six days. The officer has posed for a photograph with the houseowner in the compound of his Alpine house. The house where the four foreign hostages were held for six days in May last year, is situated in village Kuzuz in Kishtwar tehsil of Doda district.

The four foreigners, Donald Hutchings (American), Keith Mangam (British), Derek Hasert (German) and Paul Wells (British) were kidnapped in July 1995 and since then their fortunes have been swinging between hope and despair. The inability of the government agencies to recover the bodies even when some investigation reports indicated that the Al-Faran had killed them, has been the biggest loophole in the official story that the hostages could be dead.

Of late the Chief Minister Farooq Abdullah has also been saying that he hopes that the hostages are still alive. While the foreign offices of the countries whose citizens are involved, are still issuing cautious and highly diplomatic statements, which neither confirm nor clearly deny anything, the latest report at least dispels the previous stories that the hostages had been killed as late as December 1995.

The most serious drawback with the theory that the hostages are still alive is the motive of the abduction after both exchange and acceptance of the demands of kidnappers has been ruled out not only by the state government, but also by the countries of the hostages. While skeptics continue calling the sightings of the hostages as a hoax, there somehow is a strong opinion in the valley that the hostages are still alive. Given past experience with such sensitive issues, the Kashmir grapevine has always had strong elements of credibility.