Group Disavows Holding Hostages Fate Of Hutchings, Others Even Murkier After Monday Letter

A shadowy Muslim separatist group says it is no longer holding Spokane psychologist Donald Hutchings and three other Western hostages.

The surprise claim further clouds the fate of the hostages seized more than five months ago and increases concerns for their safety.

A note delivered Monday to a local newspaper in Srinagar, summer capital of the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir, said that three of the hostages had been “arrested” by Indian army troops, and that the fourth man was “missing” after a clash between members of the separatist group, Al-Faran, and the Indian forces Dec. 4.

Indian army spokesmen had reported the clash earlier, saying it had resulted in the death of Abdul Hamid Turki, whom the army identified as an Afghan citizen and as the leader of Al-Faran, and four other Al-Faran members. But after the note to the Srinagar newspaper, the army said that none of the hostages was with the Al-Faran group at the time of the army ambush.

Western diplomats noted that it was the first time since the abductions began July 4 in a Himalayan mountain region popular among foreign trekkers that an Al-Faran statement had disclaimed knowledge of the hostages’ whereabouts.

The diplomats also noted that Indian officials had said that, in their last contact with Al-Faran, by radio on Nov. 26, an Al-Faran member had renewed threats to “execute” the hostages if India continued to refuse the group’s demands for the release of Kashmiri separatist leaders held in Indian jails.

Indian officials said the Al-Faran claim that it was no longer holding the hostages had dimmed, but not extinguished, their hopes for recovering the hostages alive. They said Al-Faran’s statements have often proven misleading.

At the same time, they also said that the note claiming that the hostages were caught up in the clash with the army could be an attempt to disclaim responsibility.

“If they had killed them, it would be logical to try and shift the blame to the army,” one official said.

In its original statement on the clash, the army said three Al-Faran members who had been captured had said that the group involved in the shootout had left the hostages behind in the mountains about 50 miles east of where the clash occurred.

According to the army account, the captured men said the plan had been for the hostages to be handed over by other Al-Faran members to “local militants,” as distinct from the Afghans and Pakistanis said by Indian officials to form the core of Al-Faran, or for the hostages to be “abandoned” in the army’s wording, in the 14,000-foot mountains where they have been held for much of the time since their abduction.

Although Western diplomats in New Delhi have said little publicly about the ordeal of the four hostages - Hutchings; Keith Mangan and Paul Wells from Britain; and Dirk Hasert, from Germany - they have acknowledged privately that they have never been confident of securing their release. A fifth hostage, from Norway, was killed in August.

The latest developments have added to the diplomats’ perplexity. Although hostage-taking has been common in the conflict that has gripped Indian-ruled Kashmir for the last six years, the abduction of the four Westerners has been unusual.