The kidnapping and subsequent killing of the four foreign hostages has attracted fresh attention following the recent release of a book 'The Meadow, Kashmir 1995 -Where the terror began' and the revelations made therein.
On Friday, two local rights groups, International Peoples Tribunal on Human Rights, Justice and Association of Parents of Disappeared Persons, filed a petition before the state human rights commission seeking 'investigation of the abduction and subsequent killing of the hostages based on the revelations made in the book'.
"The crime branch investigations were closed without being presented before a competent court. The authorities who had knowledge at various times of the location of the kidnapped persons, and ultimately of their burial site, did not intervene for political reasons," said the petition filed before commission.
Six foreign hostages -- two British, Keith Mangan and Paul Wells; two Americans, John Childs, Donald Hutchings, a German, Dirk Hasert; and a Norwegian tourist, Hans Christian Ostro -- were abducted by heavily armed Al-Faran terrorists from the upper reaches of Pahalgam in July 1995.
Childs had managed to escape on July 8, 1995 and was rescued four days later Ostro was beheaded by the terrorists on August 13, 1995.
"Investigations be ordered to identify the grave sites and bodies of the four kidnapped persons, beginning with the site identified by the Crime Branch investigations as per the above mentioned book, at the remote twin villages of Mati and Gawran, and that to assist in these investigations, relevant forensic examinations of the Mati and Gawran area be carried out.
"An inquiry be conducted as to why no action was taken on various points, despite the authorities having knowledge of the location of the hostages, and then subsequently the burial site of the hostages, to ascertain the level of institutional culpability," the petition said.
"Investigations should be ordered into why after the first kidnappings on July 5, 1995, state authorities made no attempt to dissuade foreign and local trekkers from visiting Pahalgam or adjoining areas, which resulted in the subsequent kidnapping on July 8, 1995."
"The crime branch investigations and findings pertaining to the July 1995 kidnapping should be made public," it said. The book has accused some pro-government terrorists of being responsible for the killing of the five hostages.
