SRINAGAR, INDIA: An American ‘kidnapped while hiking in Kashmir said Monday that darkness and rain allowed him to slip away from the ‘separatist rebels who captured him.

I took advantage of darkness and bad weather,” John Childs said in an interview in Srinagar, where he was flown after hiking through the mountains to safety. “I was not released; I escaped.”

Childs, of Simsbury Conn., was kidnapped last week by militants of AlFaran, a little-known group fighting for Kashmir’s independence from India, The militants also kidnapped another American and two Britons.

Childs said the three others still were being held when he escaped, but he refused to give other details for fear of endangering them.

Ina statement released Monday, the militants threatened to “take an extreme step” unless the Indian government releases 21 jailed Kashmiri rebels by July 15. They also demanded ‘an immediate end to what they termed “genocide of Muslims” by the military.

“Accept our demands or face dire ‘consequences,” the group said in the statement sent to local newspapers. “We are fighting against anti-Islamic forces, Western countries are anti-Islam and America is the biggest enemy of Islam.”

Childs said he had not been harmed by his captors, and he received only a few bruises on his feet while hiking to safety after his escape at2.a.m, Saturday.

Lieutenant General D. D. Saklani, a top security adviser, told journalists that he and a police officer had rescued Childs in a helicopter about 15 hours after his escape.

To avoid being captured again, Childs climbed up the 14,000foot mountain range, instead of down it, Saklani said.

“At about 5 p.m., we saw a person waving at us on a steep hill,” he said. “We went down as low as 50 feet and told him in sign language to shift to an area where we could land.”

Indian officials flew him to Srinagar, the summer capital of Jammu Kashmir state, where he was staying in a heavily guarded government guest house and meeting with U.S. and Indian officials.

On Saturday, militants captured another Westerner, Dirk Hasert of Erfurt, Germany, who was traveling on horseback with a group of tourists, police said, It was Unclear if AlFaran was involved, Hundreds of soldiers combed the Himalayan mountain region in nor them India for Hasert and the other three Western hostages: Donald Fred Huichings of Spokane, Wash., and Britons Paul Wells and Keith Mangan.

An American woman, two British women, a Canadian man and two Kashmiri guides had been captured with Childs and the others Tuesday, but the rebels freed them with a note demanding the release of the jailed rebels.

Article extracted from this publication >>  July 14, 1995