Tip Yields No Clues About Western Hostages

Acting on a tip from a captured militant, police mounted a new search for four Western hostages kidnapped two years ago by Muslim separatists in Kashmir, but failed to turn up any clues to their whereabouts.

The militant, who said the bodies of the four were buried near Kokernag, a village 50 miles south of the state capital of Srinagar, accompanied a large police and paramilitary contingent on the search Monday.

But officials said Tuesday that nothing was found to substantiate the militant’s account.

American Donald Hutchings of Spokane, Britons Paul Wells and Keith Mangan and German Dirk Hassert were kidnapped by Al-Faran militants in July 1995. Another American, John Childs, managed to escape, while a Norwegian, Hans Christian Ostro, was beheaded.

The abductors had demanded the release of jailed guerrillas, but India refused.

The militant, Abdul Mateen, a district commander of the Harkat-ul-Ansar group, told officials after his arrest earlier this month that Al-Faran had killed the hostages.

But one person involved in the interrogation said Mateen could have been repeating hearsay, because most of the details of his story were already public knowledge.