Srinagar, April 17: The Al Faran abductions of 1995 swung back into focus as the Kashmir rights commission today sought “personal responses” from two top police officers, one retired and the other serving, who handled the case.
The move follows a petition by two rights groups seeking a re-investigation after a book by two British authors claimed four of the six western tourists were actually killed by militants working for the Indian army, not Al Faran as has been believed so far.
The government has long blamed the Al Faran, an alleged front of the Harkat-ul-Mujahideen for kidnapping the six tourists — two Britons, two Americans, one German and one Norwegian — in the summer of 1995. One hostage had escaped and another was beheaded after trying to flee. The remaining four were feared killed in captivity.
But the International People’s Tribunal on Human Rights and Justice in Kashmir and Association of Parents of Disappeared Persons have cited claims in The Meadow: Kashmir 1995 - Where the Terror Began by Adrian Levy and Catherine Scott-Clark that the four were bumped off by government-sponsored militants.
Rights commission member Javaid Kawoosa said then IGP P.S. Gill and Anantnag SP Ashkoor Wani had been asked to send explanations as the petition contained “personal allegations” against them.
Gill retired after becoming director-general of Punjab police. Wani is current police chief of Poonch in Jammu. “In addition, we have called for reports by the present director-general of police (Kashmir) and the IGP crime,” Kawoosa said.
Levy and Scott-Clark claim the Al Faran was ready to free the four hostages for money but the deal was sabotaged by “some in the Indian establishment”.
According to their book, a pro-government militant, Azad Nabi, “bought” the four from the Al Faran for Rs 4 lakh on December 1, 1995, and shot them dead on December 24. Azad was himself killed by militants some years later.
The authors claim their book is based on conversations with Kashmir crime branch officers and police sources, who reportedly told them the four were taken to a house and shot dead on December 24.
The hostage deaths came 20 days after security forces killed three Al Faran militants and captured two more — who were responsible for the abduction of the foreigners — in an ambush allegedly “set up” by Azad.
Initially after the abductions, the Al Faran had demanded the release of 21 prisoners, including Harkat chief Masood Azhar and Omar Sheikh. Both were freed in 1999 in exchange for the passengers of IC814, the Indian Airlines flight hijacked to Kandahar.
The petition before the rights commission claims the revelations in the book suggest “the involvement of the Government of India in the unconstitutional and illicit practice of collaborating with private militias”.
“Based on the research highlighted in the book by Levy and Scott-Clark, it appears that the four kidnapped persons were killed and buried collectively in a mass grave.”
The plea also wants a probe to identify the alleged graves and the bodies.
The six tourists kidnapped included Britons Keith Mangan and Paul Wells, Americans Don Hutchings and John Childs, German Dirk Hasert and Norwegian Hans Christian Ostro. Childs escaped while Ostro was beheaded after he was caught trying to flee.
