Restive Buddhists Hold Tourists In Kashmiri State
Buddhists who want autonomy are holding as many as 20 tourists captive in the same northern region where Muslim separatists are holding hostage four Westerners, including a Spokane man, news reports said Monday.
The foreigners, detained since Saturday, reportedly were European and Australian hikers, the United News of India news agency said. Government officials were headed to the valley to negotiate.
A spokesman for the Jammu-Kashmir state government, however, said the tourists weren’t being held hostage or threatened but were advised by the government to stay at a guest house out of harm’s way.
“The local people want more federal funds for developmental works, and they are angry,” said spokesman Ram Mohan Rao.
The Zanskar valley has 18,000 people, mostly Buddhists whose origins are in Tibet. They want their own autonomous council.
Meanwhile, the wives and girlfriends of an American and three Europeans held by Kashmiri separatists thanked the militants for lifting a deadline to kill the captives and urged them to free the men unharmed.
The four tourists were captured nearly 10 weeks ago by Al-Faran militants while trekking through the Himalayan mountains in Kashmir in northern India.
“We welcome your decision to extend the deadline as a first step toward their release,” the women said in a statement sent to The Associated Press on Monday. “We appeal directly to Al-Faran to release safely the ones we hold so dear.”
Al-Faran had threatened to kill Donald Hutchings, of Spokane, and two Britons and a German on Saturday unless India freed 15 jailed rebels. Instead, the group lifted the deadline, saying it was responding to the women’s appeals.
“We advise the Indian government not to waste any more time and meet our demand,” the separatists said in a statement Saturday in Srinagar, the capital of JammuKashmir state.
No new deadline was set by AlFaran, which beheaded a fifth hostage, Hans Christian Ostro of Norway, four weeks ago.
India has refused to release the rebels listed by Al-Faran for fear of encouraging more kidnappings in Jammu-Kashmir, where dozens of militant groups are fighting for independence from India.
The U.S. Embassy in New Delhi warned its staff Friday that a terrorist group may try to kidnap a diplomat in the next week.
The embassy didn’t cite a specific group, but a spokesman said there were “credible reports” that an attempt would be made against a Western diplomat or an Indian government official within 10 days.
More than 12,000 people have been killed since guerrillas began fighting in late 1989 for independence in Jammu-Kashmir, the only Muslim majority state in mostly Hindu India.