Women Are Seeking Fate Of Hostages

The wives of two Western hostages visited Kashmir on Friday to renew efforts to free their husbands and two others captured last year by Muslim separatists.

Jane Schelly, a schoolteacher from Spokane, arrived Friday in Srinagar, the summer capital of Jammu-Kashmir state.

It was her second trip this year to obtain the release of her husband, Donald Hutchings. She was accompanied by Julie Mangan, wife of hostage Keith Mangan of Middlesborough, England.

Six tourists were kidnapped by the little-known Al-Faran group while trekking through the Himalayan foothills of Jammu-Kashmir state in July 1995.

One of the men escaped soon after the kidnappings and another was murdered.

Indian officials lost contact with the Muslim separatists in November and are unsure if the hostages are still in Kashmir.

Schelly visited Kashmir in May to make a public appeal, but there was no response from Al-Faran. In addition to Hutchings and Mangan, the group claimed to hold Paul Wells of Great Britain and Dirk Hasert of Germany.

Schelly and Julie Mangan met last month with Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto.