NEW DELHI: AIFaran has agreed to release the four foreign hostages in exchange for the ransom amount of around Rs 2 crore, The modalities of the deal are being worked out and there was a strong possibility that the hostages would be released in Kashmirany day now.
The deal marks a significant climb-down for the militant group, which had earlier demanded the re~ Tease of 20 militants in Government custody. To demonstrate their firmness, AlFaran had even brutally beheaded a fifth hostage, Norwegian Hans Christian Store.
Home Ministry sources said that AlFaran, driven to the wall both by the increasingly biting cold in the high altitude of south Kashmir’s mountains.as well as the lack of interest the media on the hostage issue, had apparently decided to forget about their jailed comrades and opted for money.
AlFaran asked the Government for Rs 5 crore, to be given in US dollars (which works out to about $1.56 million), and paid to designated accounts abroad, The Government’s negotiators had to reduce the figure down, and it is now said to be around Rstwo crore (US $625,000).
The Government of India, however, is unlikely tomake the payment. The foreign Governments whose citizens are being held hostage the US, Britain and Germanywill presumably pay the ransom, All diplomats with the exception of an American embassy official, who were stationed in Srinagar for the duration of the crisis havereturned, signalling that the deal has almost been clinched. Sources said that till last reports came in, the negotiators and the kidnappers were working out the modalities on how the money should be paid and where it was to be paid, AlFaran had given the Government a deadline of September 17, to finalize the deal, as a result of which sources were anticipating that the hostages would be released early in the week, if not Sunday night.
Another factor which believed to have forced AlFaran’s dramatic climb-down is the pressure that the concerned foreign governments have been exerting on Pakistan. Much of the pressure has been directly applied on the Pakistan Army’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) agency and Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto.
AlFaran is widely believed to be a front for the Harkatul Ansar, which is a hardline pro-Pakistan militant group in J&K. The group has its headquarters in Rawalpindi, and comprises Citizens of Pakistan, Pakistan occupied Kashmir, and some local residents.
Pakistan had unwittingly made public its role in the kidnapping when prominent MP and leader of the Pakistan JamiateUlemaIslami Fazlur Rehman visited India during the and offered his services 45 a mediator to secure the release of the hostages.
The fact that he is the Chairman of the Pakistan Assembly’s Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and that he is close to Prime Minister Bhutto was not lost on the Western countries, Realizing his faux pas, he cut short his visit to India an returned to Pakistan.
Article extracted from this publication >> September 22, 1995
