Hutchings Hiked Into Hotbed Of Strife Whether He Walks Out Alive Depends On The Objectives Of His Captors

Don Hutchings - the Spokane man being held hostage by Muslim rebels in Kashmir - trekked into the middle of a little-known political conflict that has become a full-fledged religious war.

Whether he survives depends on his captors’ goals, experts say.

It’s possible the kidnappers simply wanted to draw international attention to their cause.

“If they want to maintain the true aspects of Islam, they wouldn’t want to appear cruel or mistreat their hostages,” said Marine Tolmacheva, an associate professor of history at Washington State University.

Hutchings, 42, a neuropsychologist, and his wife Jane Schelly, 40, an Arlington Elementary School teacher, were trekking through the Himalayas in Northern India on their vacation when they were abducted July 4.

Both are experienced mountaineers who had been to Kashmir before. In making the trip, they ignored international travel advisories that warned of the escalating civil war in the area.

The rebels released Schelly. She has remained in India pleading for her husband’s life. The last word from the captors came a week ago, when they said Hutchings was shot by Indian soldiers attempting to rescue him and other hostages. They are demanding the release of several Muslims being held in Indian prisons.

Until now, the world has paid little attention to the conflict in Kashmir.

“Why are there no reporters there?” asked a Kashmiri native now living in Spokane. “The fact is, if we had reporters there we would find out the truth. But India doesn’t want that to happen.”

No one knows much about the small group of captors called Al Faran, Tolmacheva said.

“It sounds to me like they bit off more than they can chew,” Tolmacheva said. “This was probably somewhat out of desperation. When people don’t have access to means of communication, they feel they are not being listened to.”

That has been an increasing sentiment among the citizens of Kashmir since Great Britain drew India’s borders after World War II.

A Kashmiri Muslim now living in Spokane said the people in his country have become very despondent.

“There is a great amount of depression and mistrust in Kashmir,” he said. He asked that his name not be published because he fears the Indian Army will retaliate against his mother, who still lives there.

Because of their region’s remoteness, the people of Kashmir had never been ruled by outside forces until the British occupation, Tolmacheva said.

As British troops withdrew, India was established as a democracy where Hindus, Muslims, Christians and other religions could co-exist in a secular state. Pakistan was created as the homeland of Islam.

Kashmir sits in between the two. The area is predominately Muslim, but their royal leader was Hindu. He choose to become part of India and the Indian Army took control of the area, combining it with a nearby Hindu region, creating the state of Jammu-Kashmir.

Ever since, Kashmiri Muslims have demanded independent elections to decide if they should remain with India, join Pakistan or become an independent state.

Pakistan, which wants to control Kashmir, has supplied rebel armies with weapons, said Frank Conlon, a history professor and director of the South Asia Center at the University of Washington’s Jackson School of International Studies.

In 1991, a Muslim demonstration turned into a riot. Muslims said the army massacred hundreds without provocation. The Indian government said demonstrators attacked Hindus, most of whom have since been driven out of Kashmir by Muslims.

Since then, the people of Kashmir have lived under military rule, Conlon said. Between 20,000 and 40,000 people have died in the conflict, mostly Muslims.

India is unlikely to allow a Kashmiri to vote, because the region probably would choose independence.

“Why didn’t Lincoln just let the South go?” asked Fritz Blackwell, associate professor of history at WSU. “Kashmir is viewed by India as critical to their union.”

India prides itself on being a secular country where all religions can be happy. As many Muslims live in India as in Pakistan. If the Muslims of Kashmir were to secede, it would be a slap in the face to India’s secular principles, Conlon said.

So the two sides are stuck at an impasse, with India insisting there is no problem and Muslims insisting there is.

“What happened is they messed up one of the best tourist places in the world,” said Glynn Wood, Dean of the Monteray Institute of International Studies and an expert on South Asia. “No (foreigners) should have been there in the last five years.”

Although there has been a travel advisory indicating tourists may be at risk for some time, thousands of people visit Kashmir every year, lulled by its exquisite beauty.

More than 9,000 foreigners vacationed there in 1994, according to India Abroad, an international newspaper. That is down from more than 67,000 tourists in 1989, before the riots.

Hutchings and Schelly were traveling through an area of particular religious significance.

Many Hindus make an annual pilgrimage the first two weeks of August, between Pahalgam and Amamath, to the caves where a Hindu god is said to have lived. The Indian Army assembles along the 30-mile stretch to protect the pilgrims from Muslim rebel attacks.

Experts say that if Hutchings and the other Westerners are to be released it will be after the pilgrimage, which officially ended Thursday.

Few people have hope the conflict will be resolved without more fighting. The international community has been reluctant to intervene. And both sides are entrenched.

“There’s blood on the ground now,” Wood said. “When you start killing like they have, it’s hard to go back.”

, DataTimes MEMO: Cut in the Spokane edition.