Kashmiri Seeks Bomber’s Release

A Kashmiri separatist leader said Sunday that rebels who have kidnapped a Spokane man and four Europeans should hold on to them until U.S. officials release the alleged mastermind of the World Trade Center bombing.

Al-Faran guerrillas, who have demanded the release of 21 Kashmiri rebels from Indian jails, should add Ramzi Yousef, who is in a New York jail, to the list, said Abdul Ahad Waza of the Hizbul Mujahedeen group.

Al-Faran is holding five men - Donald Hutchings, 42, of Spokane, as well as two Britons, a German and a Norwegian - in the remote Himalayan mountains of Kashmir in northern India. The kidnappings began July 4.

Al-Faran did not immediately respond to Waza’s request.