SRINAGAR: Militants kidnapped yet another foreign tourist this week while there was still no trace of the four tourists abducted from Pahalgam last week.
Official sources told this agency that Oslero Christafen from Norway, who had gone to Pahalgam for trekking, was abducted by a group of armed militants from Zogibal area. A police party rushed to the area on hearing ol the latest abduction. Meanwhile, there was sull little trace of the other four abducted tourists (two Britishers, an American and a German). The All Party Kashmir Hurriyat Conference (APKHC) and some individuals, besides the authorities, were making efforts to establish contact with the abductors to secure their safe release before the expiry of the July 15 deadline set by the AlFaran militants.
The Al Faran outfit which has owned responsibility for the kidnapping of the two British and two American tourists had threatened “dire consequences” if their demands including the release of 21 detainees were not met. ‘The three diplomats of the United States Britain and Germany respectively, who arrived here immediately after their nationals were kidnapped in south Kashmir, are also trying to establish contact with the abductors. However, it was not immediately known whether they had made any headway. Srinagar official sources, meanwhile, said that efforts at the Government level were continuing to trace the abducted foreigners, Search parties had been dispatched to different places but the efforts had not yielded any results so far.
Article extracted from this publication >> July 21, 1995
