Hostage Exchange Rejected Spokane Man Included In Militants’ Proposal

India on Wednesday rejected a proposal by separatist militants in Kashmir to exchange two ailing Western hostages, including a Spokane man, for an imprisoned guerrilla, saying that would only lead to more kidnappings in the war-torn province.

“The number of prisoners the militants want freed isn’t the question,” said External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee. “This is a question of principle. We cannot subject ourselves to a situation that would encourage more kidnappings.”

In a telephone interview from London, where he was on an official visit to England, Mukherjee once again urged the militants to free the captives on humanitarian grounds.

Al-Faran recently reduced its demands for the third time since it kidnapped an American, two Britons and a German in early July.

When the drama began, Al-Faran demanded that 15 of its imprisoned comrades be freed. Last week, it scaled down that demand, saying it would swap hostages for six jailed captives.

On Monday, Al-Faran told an Indian negotiator that two of the captives are ill, one critically, and that it will free them if India releases one jailed militant. India has refused to identify the one rebel who Al-Faran wants freed.

Al-Faran has not said which hostages are ill, but earlier statements have suggested they are Spokane psychologist Donald Hutchings, 42, and one of the Britons.

Last week the rebels said one hostage - presumably Hutchings - had become critically ill and urged his relatives to return to India prepared to collect his body.

Al-Faran reportedly has had local doctors examine the hostages who are moving from one hideout to another in the snowy foothills of the Himalayan mountains of Jammu-Kashmir, a northern state.

The wives and girlfriends of the hostages left India Oct. 26, after their pleas to Al-Faran made no progress.

Hutchings’ wife, Jane Schelly, returned to Spokane and resumed teaching PE at Arlington Elementary School.

Besides Hutchings, the other captives are Keith Mangan, 33, of Middlesbrough, England; Paul Wells, 23, of London; and Dirk Hasert, 26, of Erfurt, Germany.

Another American, John Childs of Simsbury, Conn., escaped soon after being kidnapped, and a sixth hostage, Norwegian Hans Christian Ostro, was decapitated by Al-Faran.

Al-Faran is one of dozens of militant groups fighting for the independence of Jammu-Kashmir, the only state in predominantly Hindu India with a Muslim majority.

About 12,000 people have been killed in fighting between the rebels and thousands of Indian soldiers.