......................Features in detail
The foreign face of terror
By M. L. Kak
WHEN Akbar Bhai, an Afghan war veteran and bodyguard of Afghan leader and a staunch fundamentalist, Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, was killed in an encounter with the BSF in north Kashmir’s apple basket of Sopore, 54 km from Srinagar, on August 7, 1993, it conveyed two messages. One, that foreign mercenaries, especially the Afghan guerrillas, had sneaked into the valley in large numbers. And two, that these foreign insurgents were better fighters than the Kashmiri rebels but at the same time were not invincible.The Sopore encounter resulted in the death of three Afghans, including Akbar Bhai, and the BSF lost four jawans and four others were wounded, which indicated, beyond any doubt, that foreign mercenaries had strong fighting instincts.
According to G.S. Bal, Deputy Controller, Prisons, and a former Commandant of the BSF, the death of Akbar Bhai saw the “liberation” of Sopore town from foreign mercenaries.In fact, Pakistan had started sending foreign mercenaries into the Kashmir valley, though in small numbers, right from 1990, which is corroborated by the way Indian security forces eliminated 10 Pakistani nationals and four Afghan guerrillas in 1990. Since 1990, the rate of infiltration of foreign mercenaries from across the border has been on the increase which has led to an increase in their arrest and elimination. As per the government figures, the number of foreign mercenaries killed between 1990 and the first six months of 1998 has shown an upward curve.
Against the 14 killed in 1990, the figure shot up to 90 in 1993, 122 in 1994, 85 in 1995, 139 in 1996, 197 in 1997 and 55 during the last six months.In 1990, two foreign mercenaries were arrested, 20 in 1992, 32 in 1993, 33 in 1994, 32 in 1997 and 10 during the past six months. Among the 155 arrests, 130 belonged to Pakistan, 23 to Afghanistan, one to Lebanon and two to Behrain. Among the 725 mercenaries killed during the last eight years, 190 belonged to Pakistan, about 155 to Afghanistan, seven to Sudan, four to Yemen. Prominent among the foreign guerrillas who have been killed in operations and encounters with the security forces include Abu Abid from Chechnia, Bambar Khan from Baluchistan, Abu Hazalfa from Yemen, Iqbal Afghani, Mohammed Mirza, Sajjad Ali, Nasserullah, Iqbal Bhai and Chand Bhai (all from Afghanistan).
In the initial stages of insurgency, foreign mercenaries were pushed into the Kashmir valley for imparting guerrilla training to the local boys and to inspire them for carrying out killings in a barbaric style so as to create a scare among the people and extract full cooperation from them. Since 1994, the number of Afghan and Pak guerrilla infiltrators increased after the local militants’ weak sinews failed to sustain what they called Jehad under the mounting pressure from the Indian security forces.According to Gurbachan Jagat, Director-General Police, more and more foreign mercenaries were pushed into Jammu and Kashmir after a number of local militants dwindled, partly because of their arrest and elimination and partly on account of large surrenders.
Pakistan started banking on foreign mercenaries as they were better trained and committed to carry on the armed campaign. As the reports of local militants surrendering before the security forces reached Pakistan, Islamabad lost “trust” in the local boys. The incident-free Lok Sabha and Assembly elections in 1996 changed the pattern of insurgency in the state. Pakistan sent more Afghan guerrillas to the state for fomenting subversive violence in several parts of the Jammu region.
Jagat is of the opinion that another factor which motivated Pakistan to send foreign mercenaries, including those from Sudan, Yemen and Lebanon, was to portray insurgency in the hues of Jehad. This gives a chance to Islamabad to receive funds from several Islamic countries.
Between 1990 and 1993, foreign mercenaries were “lionised” by a section of local people in Kashmir and by the militants. During this stage a majority of these non-Kashmiri guerrillas functioned as activists of the pro-Pak Hizb-ul- Mujahideen militant outfit. Stories were dished out in praise of Afghan guerrillas. The gullible people were made to believe that the Afghan Mujahideens were strictly vegetarians and preferred to cook food themselves. Another story that made the rounds was that the Afghans wouldpay heavily for the food they would eat in any Kashmiri house. However, eyewitness accounts have indicated that a small section of non-Kashmiri mercenaries, indoctrinated right from their childhood and reformed into religious fanatics, neither indulged in extortion nor accepted food free of cost from their supporters in the valley.
Since more than 90 per cent of the mercenaries do not belong to Hanafi Musluk, which believes in liberal interpretation of principles of Islamic laws, they have never opted for vegetarianism. And as a result of it, one found “slaughtering” of lambs, sheep, goats and cows to have serveral courses of lunch and dinners. Highly indoctrinated mercenaries have remained a disciplined lot and they would be more concerned about their assigned tasks of carrying out subversive violence than indulging in epicurean pleasures. And when criminals from Pakistan and Afghanistan were inducted, Kashmiris developed deep hatred for them as they indulged in extortion of many hues.
As foreign mercenaries started losing support from the Kashmiris, Pakistan floated two new organisations, the Lashkar-i-Toiba and the Harkat-ul Ansar, to allow a free hand to the Pakistani and Afghan guerrillas as far as kicking up subversive violence was concerned. At present these outfits have 80 per cent foreigners as their activists and the 20 per cent local militants are simply used as guides. They are forced to do menial jobs.
Reports say that Pakistan pushed into Jammu and Kashmir foreign mercenaries to ensure that the militants operating in the state followed the directions from Islamabad in letter and spirit. Islamabad had got confused with reports that a large section of people in Kashmir were either for greater autonomy or for an independent status for the state, and this line was against the interests of Islamabad which has been aspiring for incorporation of Kashmir with Pakistan.
Most of these foreign mercenaries had been told that Muslims in Kashmir were being killed in thousands and all the mosques had been destroyed by the Indian troops. This was enough to motivate young Afghans and Pakistanis to get ready to fight the Indian Army on the soil of Kashmir. Take the case of one Mohammed Khalid of Sialkot in Pakistan. He was a havildar in the Pakistan Army for 12 years. As soon as he heard of the demolition of the Babri Masjid, he deserted the Pakistan Army in 1995 and infiltrated into the Jammu sector as an activist of the Hizb-ul Mujahideen. He was arrested somewhere near Budhal in Rajouri in September, 1995, and since then he has been languishing in Kotbalwal jail in Jammu.
Zulifkar Ali Shah (24) is from Jalalabad in Afghanistan and he had joined the guerrilla training camp when he was 13. He was interested in the study of electronics but his conviction to carry out the Islamic revolution lured him to join those who were engaged in Jehad in Kashmir. He was arrested in February, 1993, and despite five years’ of incarceration there is no change in his outlook. Zameer Ahmed (22) of Gujranwala in Pakistan joined an arms training camp when he was 15. He infiltrated into Jammu and Kashmir as an activist of the Lashkar-i-Toiba, but his dream of smashing the Indian military installations was shattered when he was arrested in February, 1993. He is no longer repentent and enjoys his confinement in Kotbalwal jail in Jammu.
Maulana Masood Azhar, a scholar, is very angry. As a journalist, he had entered into the Kashmir valley on a “valid passport.” He is not ready to talk as he is bitter about the torture he had to bear during interrogation. These non-Kashmiri militants speak about their mission of spreading Islam not only in India but in the West also. They emphatically deny the allegations that foreign mercenaries were behind massacres at Wandhama Prankot, Chapnari, Swari or elsewhere. “We have to fight the Indian Army and those who create hurdles in our mission. We do not kill innocent civilians. There are some agencies behind the killing of people at Wandhama, Swari, Chapnari and we are being blamed for it just to malign our name.”
One senior Hurriyat Conference leader, who has preferred to remain unidentified for obvious reasons, is of the opinion that presence of foreign mercenaries in Jammu and Kashmir “is being blown up out of proportion.” “It is a politically motivated game of raising a hue and cry over the concentration of foreigners in the state,” he says adding that it was being done to show to the world that “insurgency is Pakistan sponsored.”
The Army Commander, Lt. Gen. S. Padmanabhan, in a recent statement said that there are 2,000 militants active in the state and out of them 60 per cent were foreign mercenaries. This is being contested by the state intelligence agencies. These agencies have reports that more than 5,000 militants are active in the state. Whatever may be the number, the foreign mercenaries are “hard fighters.” According to G.S.Bal, “usually foreign guerrillas fight to the finish. They seldom surrender. They prefer death to surrender as they know that once they surrender they would be killed.”
This has been confirmed by a series of encounters the Indian security forces had with the Afghan and Pak guerrillas in Sopore, Kupwara, Shopian in Kashmir, Poonch, Surankot, Doda in the Jammu region where security forces lost scores of their jawans and officers in recent months.
As the wind has started turning against the foreign mercenaries, the Afghan and Pak guerrillas have changed their strategy. Whenever they enter into the houses of known or known civilians, they behave in a decent way and pay for everything they take in these houses.
A big section of these foreign mercenaries feel tired of their prolonged stay in the state where they are under constant shadow of death. Some of them are keen to go back as they have realised that “Islam is no longer in danger in Kashmir.” Some of them admitted openly in Kupwara in front of the Army that they were misled by Pak agencies that mosques had been destroyed in Kashmir. “We have never seen anything like this.” Some are transformed others are not and as such the see-saw game goes on. Will they stop “bleeding Kashmir”? This question defies a straight answer.
However, one thing is certain: the burning of historic Chrar-e-Sharif shrine and theabduction of six foreign trekkers has caused a revulsion against the foreign mercenaries.
The Afghan war veteran, Mast Gul, is no longer being worshipped in Kashmir after his siege on Chrar town in Budgam district led to the destruction of 500-year-old shrine of Sheikh Nooruddin Wali. The way he escaped to Pakistan, soon after the destruction of the shrine has made him a suspect in the eyes of the ISI.

Where are the foreign hostages?
By Maharaj K. Koul
EVEN after three years of kidnapping of four foreign tourists by the Al Faran terrorists from Pahalgam area in Kashmir valley, the western countries have not given up their efforts to trace them. However, there is a general feeling in the state that the abducted tourists may be dead by now.High-ranking officials from the USA, Germany and Britain met senior state government officials recently. They also talked to various militant leaders lodged in different jails in the state in the last week of May to ascertain the whereabouts of the hostages. Their visit came when a number of militants, including Parvez Baba (Ghulam Nabi Baba), deputy supreme commander of HUA (Harkat-ul-Ansar), had revealed during interrogation that the hostages had been killed by their captors about two years back.
As early as December 1996, the Jammu & Kashmir government had announced an award of Rs 10 lakh for the recovery of the hostages. Official sources told the media that this was done on the advice of the western nations whose nationals are in the captivity of the Al Faran militants. An Israeli Uri Geller, whose help has been sought by the families of the hostages, also announced an award of $50,000 on April 28, 1997, for information leading to the release of the hostages. The offer was made in an open letter. Besides announcing the cash award, Geller stated that he was prepared to act as an intermediary on behalf of the kidnappers so that their case can be heard at the highest levels.
A report in the British newspaper The Sunday Times has confirmed what Indian officials have for long said in private. Two of the hostages, Donald Hutchings and Dirk Hessert, the newspaper reported on March 29, were shot dead by Al Faran early in December 1995, while Keith Mangan and Paul Wells were executed shortly afterwards. Officials have for long argued that the four were shot dead after HUA chief Hamid Turki was killed in an encounter with the Indian Army near Dabran in Anantnag district in South Kashmir on December 4, 1995. Frustrated by their failure to secure the prisoners’ release, and further angered by Turki’s death, orders were issued for the hostages’ execution.
The Sunday Times has provided further substance to this account of events. According to the newspaper, a series of meetings with HUA commander Fazlul Rehman Halil were held at the US Embassy in Islamabad, Pakistan. The dialogue broke down because the HUA leaders were angered by the US attitude.
“The HUA commanders became so angry that they were determined to deny Americans any success, and sent a message through to Kashmir that the remaining hostages should be disposed of,” the newspaper reported.
The revelation of the American contacts with the HUA leadership in Pakistan helps resolve several issues. For one, it establishes that the HUA contrary to its public denials, had accepted responsibility for the kidnapping, early on. More importantly, it helps explain the conviction behind the US declaration in 1997 that the HUA is a terrorist group. What remains unexplained is why the USA waited until 1997 to express official displeasure against the organisation, and why the HUA was found to be a terrorist group only when western lives were involved?
The fate of the four foreign tourists taken hostage by Al Faran militants in July 1995 may remain shrouded in the mists that envelop the thick Himalayan forest slopes of Kokernag, the trekking paradise not far from Pahalgam in South Kashmir. If the confession of a top Pakistani militant in captivity is to be believed, the hostages were killed on December 13, 1995, in the Magam area of Kokernag and buried in the jungles there. The exact location where they were buried was kept a secret as was desired by the militant group.
The hostages include Keith Mangan, a 33-year-old electrician from Middlesborough in Britain who sold his business to spend a year travelling with his wife, Julie; Paul Wells, 23, a student of photography from Nottingham, who travelled to Kashmir with his girlfriend; Donald Hutchings, a 43-year-old psychologist from Washington, USA, and Dirk Hessert, 26, from Erfurt, Germany. They were among six hostages kidnapped by the Al Faran, a hitherto unheard of group, widely believed to be part of the Pakistani HUA, which reportedly assumed a new name to avoid being associated with Pakistan.
Dirk Hessert and Hans Ostro, a 27-year-old Norwegian who came to India to study dance, were picked up on July 8, 1995, four days after the other hostages were held. They were caught to replace John Childs, an American who pretended he had an upset stomach and fled into the mountains after being allowed to relieve himself behind some bushes.
There were six important abductors: Abdul Hamid Turki (Turkish), Zubair Ahmed (Pakistani), Ali Hassan (Pakistani), Safdar (Pakistani), Abdullah (Pakistani) and Abu Torab (Pakistani). The women with the hostages were allowed to go back with a note saying the kidnapping was done by Al Faran to get leaders like Masud Azhar, Sajjad Afghani and Nasrullah Masood released.
The name Al Faran had specially been given to the HUA’s “abductor group”. As a group, it did not exist earlier. In July 1995, the hostages were kept in gujjar kothas (sheds used by nomadic shepherds) at different locations. Their cameras, tape recorders, watches, binoculars, sleeping bags, etc were snatched and distributed among the HUA militants.
On August 14, 1995, the beheaded body of the Norwegian hostage Hans Ostro was found in the jungles near Anantnag. It was said that Ostro was executed because he had tried to escape several times.
The HUA, which had been formed in 1993 with the merger of 2 Afghan mercenary groups, the Harkat-ul-Mujahideen and Harkat-ul-Jehad-e-Islami, had already made 3 unsuccessful attempts in Kashmir to have above mentioned leaders swapped for hostages.
The first was the kidnapping of Major Bhupinder Singh, who was killed by his captors since the government refused to give in to the demand of Sajjad Afghani’s release. The second was the abduction of 2 young Britons, David Mackey and Kim Housego, who were freed after 17 days following the intervention of Qazi Nissar, the Mirwaiz of South Kashmir, who was also later killed. Harkat’s third attempt was made when a group of foreign tourists were kidnapped in August 1994 in New Delhi. These hostages were abducted by Al Hadith, also later discovered to be an adjunct of the HUA, but were rescued by the police from a safehouse in Saharanpur in UP.
A month after the four hostages were taken, Al Faran decided to show the world that it could be as ruthless as it threatened to be if its demand to free 21 jailed militants was not met, (the list was eventually reduced to five). Establishing radio contact with Indian negotiators, the group agreed to accept a Rs 2 crore ransom at one stage. And the government said it was willing to end the crisis. But the details of the negotiation were leaked to a Delhi newspaper, and the deal was hurriedly called off.
The last such contact was on November 26, 1995, after which all links with the captors snapped, except for a renewed appeal by militants to the British High Commissioner for ransom. According to Gurbachan Jagat, Director-General of Jammu and Kashmir Police, there is no firm report on the hostages after December, 1995.
The hostages were “sighted” at Bajpathari, situated at an altitude of 12,000 feet in Kishtwar forests in Jammu division by forest guards and some nomads in August 1996 in a meadow between Madhwa and Chatroo. The latter is 31 km from Kishtwar town. The official sources said the forest guards had seen only 2 hostages and being guarded by 16 gunmen.
Hence these hostages became pawns in the deadly proxy war between India and Pakistan that has raged in the state since January, 1990. Unfortunately for them, their tragedy was that unlike other political kidnappings of western hostages, their plight failed to generate the public outcry needed to make their governments agree to a compromise to save them.

Jane's anguished cry At this time, three years since the July 4, 1995, abduction of my husband Donald Hutchings, I return to Srinagar once again, the fourth time, to seek information regarding the condition, fate, or whereabouts of him. As his wife, I beg that anyone who has information regarding his whereabouts, to please step forward to put an end to my uncertainty. I need to know with certainty what has become of him, if he is alive, and if he has been killed, where’s his body. I would wish to bury him with peace and dignity. During the past three years, I have continued with my job in Spokeane, WA, teaching sports to children in the 6-12 age group. They often ask if I hear from my husband. They ask why he has been taken hostage if he has done nothing wrong, or if he is in jail. My friends and family are my support and comfort. Although I try to continue my life with as much normalcy as is possible, I long for an answer that would bring me together with my husband, or at least bring to a close this chapter of my life if he has been killed. I beg your assistance with that answer. Address in USA 8006E. Columbia Drive Spokeane, WA 99212 USA Phone: Res. 509-922-3496 Fax: 509-353-5376 Email: jschelly @iea. com