Kashmir Official Says Spokane Hostage Alive But Leader Offers No Details On Hutchings, Other Kidnap Victims

Friends of Spokane psychologist Donald Hutchings were encouraged Saturday by reports that he and three others kidnapped by separatists 15 months ago are alive.

Farooq Abdullah, Kashmir state’s top elected official, said the hostages are still living, but he refused to provide details. He took over as Jammu-Kashmir state chief minister last week, Press Trust of India news agency said.

“Don’t ask me such questions,” Abdullah said at a news conference in Srinagar when asked about their whereabouts.

“We’re excited,” said Jacki McManus, a friend of Hutchings and his wife, Jane Schelly. “It’s the first time there’s been any (positive) news in some time.”

The tourists were kidnapped in July 1995 in Kashmir by the Al-Faran group, one of a dozen organizations fighting for independence of Kashmir. More than 14,500 people have been killed in the struggle since 1989.

The other hostages are Keith Mangan, 34, of Middlesborough, England; Paul Wells, 24, of London; and Dirk Hasert, 26, of Erfurt, Germany.

Schelly left Spokane last week for Kashmir and will be there for a month, said another family friend, Randy LaBeff. Schelly has made two trips to plead for her 43-year-old husband’s release. When she returned from her last trip in August, she said she’d return to Kashmir “in a heartbeat” if she heard anything about the hostages.

McManus said Schelly planned to offer money for information confirming the whereabouts of her husband. She also planned to travel with a newspaper reporter, McManus said, noting that otherwise Schelly would be traveling to remote villages alone.

During her previous trip to Kashmir, Schelly traveled with Indian soldiers, whose presence prevented villagers from providing information.

LaBeff said he and other friends “have guarded optimism” because they’ve heard news like this before.

“We’ve had so many positive and negative stories over the last year and a quarter, we’re just waiting for the real thing,” said George Neal, who met Hutchings in 1984 during an expedition on Mount McKinley.

Family members and friends of the other hostages also were expected to visit Srinagar this week to renew their appeal to the separatists to free the hostages, PTI said. For now, friends are following developments on the Internet and trying to keep one another up to date on any developments, Neal said.

, DataTimes The following fields overflowed: CREDIT = From staff and wire reports Staff writers Jennifer Plunkett and Brian Coddington contributed to this report.