Rights panel seeks report on missing tourists
From S.P. Sharma
Tribune News Service

SHIMLA, Oct 15 — The authorities are trying to put a lid on the disappearance of at least 12 foreign tourists in the Kulu valley.

While the district authorities have described reports on the missing foreigners, first published in the Sunday Times as baseless, a top police officer told TNS that report of deaths of foreign tourists in interior areas of Kulu had been received from time to time.

The State Human Rights Commission had asked the Kulu district police to submit a report on the missing foreigners within a fortnight.

The district police has been accused of striking a "pact of silence" on the missing tourists with ganja growers.

When contacted on the telephone, the Deputy Commissioner, Kulu, Mr R.D. Dhiman, who is also the District Magistrate, said he had no intimation about the missing foreigners, except in one case.

The authorities here are tight-lipped while the issue is being highlighted by the press and the electronic media.

The Chairman of the State Human Rights Commission, Mr Justice P.C. Balakrishna Menon, told TNS that the commission might depute its Inspector-General of Police to investigate the matter if the report of the Superintendent of Police, Kulu, is not satisfactory,

He said the commission could have ordered the IGP to investigate the matter, but "we did not want to bypass the channels. Once the report of the district SP is received within two weeks, the commission will decide whether to hold a separate enquiry or not."

It is alleged that the district authorities of Kulu have been trying to suppress vital-information. The authorities reportedly failed to trace the four armed persons suspected to be terrorists who were spotted by an official of the Border Roads Organisation in the third week of August. These armed persons disappeared near Manali although a major hunt was launched in the area.

The ineffectiveness of the police in the district, an important destination for tourists, can be gauged from the fact that the official residence of the Deputy Commissioner was burgled about two months ago.

Relatives of the missing foreigners have reportedly complained that there is "no law" in the area. They say that the police is maintaining silence over the issue and is in connivance with "ganja" growers.

The disappearance of foreign tourists has come to light with Frank Mogford, a Royal Air Force Wing Commander, fruitlessly searching his missing son, Ian, in Kulu area.

The Sunday Times has reported that families of certain missing tourists claim that the authorities have cremated bodies of foreigners without informing the Foreign Mission at Delhi.

A 35-year-old Israeli Air Force officer, Nadv Mintzer, disappeared from Manali on September 20 last year. Personnel of the Israeli Special forces, Army and police undertook extensive search operations in Kulu, Manali, Manikaran and the Pin valley to trace the missing officer who had come as a tourist.

Among the others missing was an Irish geologist, a Canadian law student and an Australian traveller.

The paper has reported that Homa Boustani, a Canadian, whose son, Ardavan, was missing in Kulu since last year, has spent six months trying to trace him.

There have been reports that foreign tourists in good numbers opt to stay in the interior areas of Kulu where cannabis cultivation is being done for manufacturing charas. Six foreign nationals were arrested in the past two months under the Narcotics, Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act.