news details |
|
|
| When Al Faran vanished along with foreign tourists | | | EARLY TIMES REPORT
Jammu, Dec 2: Al Faran, an outfit that abducted six foreign tourists from Aru, a health resort in the Valley of Shepherds in South Kashmir on July 4, 1995 vanished on December 4. With it vanished into thin air the surviving tourists. Nothing has been heard about them till date.
The abductees, Donald Hutchings (American), John Childs (American) Keith Mangan and Paul Wells (British), Dirk Hasert (German) and Hans Ostro (Norwegian) would have never imagined that their treckking trip would meet a tragic end. Hans Ostro was executed a few days after captivity and the police recovered his beheaded body. John Childs somehow managed escape and was rescued by a reconnaissance helicopter. The whereabouts of other tourists are still unknown.
A militant, Nazar Muhammad alias Masood arrested from downtown Srinagar on May 7, 1996 disclosed that the hostages had been executed following orders from the commanders of the Al Faran outfit. The execution story, however, had many loose ends, the biggest being the failure of the authorities to recover the bodies of the hostages even after the militant identified the `burial site' in Kokernag area of south Kashmir. The execution theory also did not find takers among the state intelligence department who said the hostages had been sighted as late as March 1996.
Soon after, an investigating team comprising Scotland Yard and FBI men, assisted by trained German Shepherd dogs, who scanned the so-called burial site, also drew blank.
The hostage drama took a significant turn on December 4, 1995 when the army, acting on specific information closed on village Dabran in Anantnag district to get the hostages released. The encounter, which later described by the army as a `routine operation not aimed at rescuing the hostages', resulted in the death of the commander-in-chief of the outfit, Abdul Hamid Turki. However, Turki managed to keep the army at bay till his comrades escaped from the village along with the hostages.
Immediately after this encounter, the Al Faran stated that the hostages were taken away by the army and also that the group henceforth owed no responsibility for their safety. Since December 4, 1995 there has been a virtual tight lid on the information about the movement of the hostages. Both army and the Al Faran have been accusing each other of eliminating the hostages.
The Al Faran had earlier snapped talks with the state police officials who were negotiating with them over wireless. The transcript of these talks was leaked to a news magazine much to the annoyance of the Al Faran. Immediately after this incident, the Al Faran not only snapped links with the state police but `lost faith in the genuineness of the dialogue being carried out with them'. A spokesman of the outfit while commenting on the attitude of the police said: "They are only buying time and we shall not allow them that.'
Meanwhile stories appeared in newspapers that a cash deal had actually been struck with the Al Faran and that the money was going to change hands in Pakistan administered Kashmir, literally closed the fate of the hostages.
The relatives of the hostages visited Kashmir several times. Match boxes with photographs of the hostages were widely distributed. They also promised cash awards but all in vain.
On August 4, 1996, wives of Keith and Don Hutchings, Julie and Jane addressed a press conference in Srinagar. The aggrieved ladies said" "We have not lost hope. We need concrete information about our husbands' condition and whereabouts.
Earlier a parliamentary delegation from Germany comprising Vera Lengsfed, Johannes Selle and brother of Dirk Hasser, Bernd Hessert addressed the media persons. They said: "We have brought with us two lakh signatures of people expressing sympathy with Kashmiris and appealing for prompt release of the hostages."
Wives of Donald Hutchings and Schelly also addressed a press conference on June 26, 1996. "Holding four innocent tourists hostage serves no purpose. It is against glorious traditions of Islam", they said.
The authorities accompanied by experts from US and Europe exhumed scores of graves in South Kashmir. DNA samples were also taken but the mystery remains unsolved to this day. The Al Faran vanished after December 4, 1995 and with it vanished the tourists. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
| |
|
|
|
|
 |
|
|
|
|
STOCK UPDATE |
|
|
 |
| BSE
Sensex |
 |
| NSE
Nifty |
|
|
| |
CRICKET UPDATE |
|
|
|
|
| |
| |
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
