Kashmiri Separatists Kidnap Indian Soldiers, Kill At Least One

Kashmiri separatists abducted seven Indian army recruits on Sunday and reportedly killed at least one of them in Jammu-Kashmir state.

Kashmiri militants - though most likely from a different group - are holding four Westerners hostage and have threatened to kill them unless the Indian government frees 15 jailed militants. A fifth hostage was beheaded a week ago.

The American hostage, Donald Hutchings, is from Spokane.

Some Indians have voiced dismay over the international attention paid to the kidnapping of the American, German and two Britons, while abductions of Indian villagers are daily occurrences that usually go unreported.

More than 12,000 people have been killed since 1989 in Jammu-Kashmir, the only Muslim-majority state in this predominantly Hindu country.

A group of armed men seized the army recruits after stopping their bus nine miles from Srinagar, the state’s summer capital, Press Trust of India reported. The body of one of the soldiers was later found in a field, the news agency said. The fate of the others was unknown.

In the Pakistani capital, Islamabad, a powerful Kashmiri secessionist organization accused the Indian government Sunday of orchestrating the kidnapping of Western hostages in an attempt to vilify separatist militants.

The hostages have been held since early July by a previously unknown rebel group, Al-Faran. Dozens of Muslim militant groups are fighting for the independence of Jammu-Kashmir. The groups, however, have condemned the kidnappings.

Ghulam Mohammed Safi, secretary general of the powerful All Parties Hurriyat Conference, an umbrella group for Kashmiri professional and political organizations, called the kidnappings “a drama staged by Indian intelligence agents to malign Kashmiri freedom fighters.”

The Pakistani government also has accused India of masterminding the kidnapping.

Meanwhile, the Indian-appointed governor of Kashmir, K.V. Krishna Rao, backed off of the threat to carry out a military raid to rescue the four Westerners.

He previously had said a raid would be considered as a last option. But the separatists responded that the hostages would be killed at the first sign of attack, and Rao said Sunday the military had no plans for a raid.

Pakistan and India have gone to war over Kashmir twice.