NEW DELHI: The Al Faran group killed 27yearold Norwegian tourist Hans Christian Ostro and threatened to kill the remaining four foreign hostages who were kidnapped from Pahalgam about a month ago, unless 15 militants were released! by the Government within the next two days.

Official sources said that the severed head and torso of the slain tourist were found at Hapathnar village in Anantnag district, 130 km south of Srinagar, by some villagers in the morning. Police identified the beheaded body by noon. The postmortem revealed that Ostro had been murdered.

In a note found on the body, Al Faran claimed responsibility for the killing ‘and threatened to kill the four remaining hostages Paul Wells and Keith Monigam of the United Kingdom, Donald Fred Hutchings, an American, and Dirk Hasert of Germany.

One American tourist, John Childs, had escaped from his captors last month.

Osiro was a student, who had come to south Kashmir for trekking along with a friend. He had been kidnapped on July 10. The police had recovered his passport and air tickets from his abandoned tent, which helped in establishing his identity.

He is the first foreign tourist to have been killed by the Kashmiris although about half a dozen of them have been kidnapped during six years of militancy in the Valley.

His body was town to the Military Hospital in Srinagar in a helicopter. Authorities remained tight-lipped about the incident throughout the day. The Governor’s adviser, Lt GenD.D. Saklani, and the Director General of Police M.M, Sabharwal, received the body, which is likely 10 be flown to Delhi, A relative of the killed tourist is in own, reports said.

Although the Government had categorically said “no” to Al Faran’s demands, some low-level mediators were working out a peaceful end to the crisis, sources said.

The militants had issued a statement on July 20, stating that two of the five hostages were injured in an exchange of fire with the security forces in Anantnag district The Governor, Gen (reid) K.V. Krishna Rao, however, denied the charge saying that the two hostages were injured when the militants fired on them as they tried to escape.

The group, who were earlier asking for the release of 21 of their col- leagues, reduced their demand 10 15 militants.

Article extracted from this publication >>  August 18, 1995