The Meadow
Authors: Adrian Levy
ADRIAN LEVY AND
CATHY SCOTT-CLARK
The Meadow
Terrorism, Kidnapping
and Conspiracy in Paradise
For all of the injured, the dead and the missing
The headlights filled the road. Everyone cried
out for mother and father’s love and as the
doors to the ascent opened the ballad began
again. For his disappeared love he went from
hole to hole, grave to grave, searching for the
eyes that don’t find. From gravestone to
gravestone, from cry to cry, it went through
niches, through shadows, and it went like this.
FROM RAÚL ZURITA,
SONG FOR HIS DISAPPEARED LOVE
,
TRANSLATED INTO ENGLISH BY DANIEL BORZUTZKY
(
ACTION BOOKS, NOTRE DAME, INDIANA
, 2010)
CONTENTS
Southern Kashmir and Doda District
Trekking and Pilgrimage Routes in Kashmir Valley
11. Winning the War, Call by Call
13. Resolution Through Dialogue
18.
Chor-Chor Mausere Bhai
(All Thieves are Cousins)
Epilogue: Fill Your Arms with Lightning
1
. The route to the Meadow, photographed by Hans Christian Ostrø shortly before he was kidnapped. (Marit Hesby)
2
. Julie and Keith Mangan and Catherine Moseley trek towards the Meadow in early July 1995. Photo by Paul Wells. (Bob Wells)
3
. Cath, Keith and Julie trek towards the Meadow. Photo by Paul Wells. (Bob Wells)
4
. Setting up camp en route to the Meadow. Photo by Paul Wells. (Bob Wells)
5
. Hans Christian Ostrø being made up for his
kathakali
dance graduation show in Sreekrishnapuram, May 1995. (Marit Hesby)
6
. Ostrø on board
Montana
houseboat, Dal Lake, Srinagar. (Marit Hesby)
7
. The Heevan Hotel in Pahalgam. (Courtesy
Conveyor
magazine, Srinagar)
8
. The wives and girlfriends of the kidnapped men leaving the first press conference at the Welcome Hotel in Srinagar on 13 July 1995. (Agency photo)
9
. Rajinder Tikoo, Inspector General of Crime Branch at the time of the kidnappings. (Undated photo, courtesy
Kashmir Times
)
10
. Members of the al Faran kidnap party. (Courtesy Maqbool Sahil)
11
. One of the first hostage photographs, taken by al Faran outside the herders’ hut from which John Childs had escaped in the early hours of 8 July. (Agency photo)
12
. Lt. General (retired) D.D. Saklani, Security Advisor to the Governor of Kashmir. (AP)
13
. John Childs reunited with his daughters on 15 July 1995. (Agency photo)
14
. Childs shortly after his rescue. (Agency photo)
15
. A picture of the hostages and their captors that was delivered to the Srinagar Press Enclave on 14 July 1995, shortly before the first deadline expired. (Marit Hesby)
16
. Hostages photographed inside an unidentified herders’ hut, probably in the Warwan Valley. (Marit Hesby)
17
. The Warwan Valley, where the hostages were held for eleven weeks. (Authors’ archive)
18
. Sukhnoi village. (Authors’ archive)
19
. Indian security forces question shepherds about the whereabouts of the hostages. (AP Photo/Qaiser Misra)
20
. Don Hutchings, supposedly injured following a botched Indian security force operation. (Authors’ archive)
21
. Hans Christian Ostrø’s corpse at Anantnag police station in south Kashmir. (Marit Hesby)
22
. The hostages soon after they arrived in the Warwan Valley. (Marit Hesby)
23
. Two views from Mardan Top, at the southern end of the Warwan Valley. (Authors’ archive)
24
. David Mackie and Kim Housego were seized by Pakistan-backed militants in June 1994 and held for seventeen days. (AP)
25
. Letter written by Hans Christian Ostrø to his family and the Norwegian Embassy shortly after his capture. (Marit Hesby)
26
. Ostrø arranged for several batches of photographs, on which he wrote cryptic clues as to the hostages’ condition and location, to be smuggled out of the Warwan. (Marit Hesby)
27
. The contents of Hans Christian Ostrø’s money belt, recovered from his tent at Zargibal. (Authors’ archive)
28
. Press conference given by Jane Schelly and Julie Mangan, Srinagar, July 1995. (Authors’ archive)
29
. Photograph of Paul Wells thought to have been taken in the wooden guesthouse in Sukhnoi village, Warwan, where the hostages were kept for several weeks. (Bob Wells)
30
. Photograph taken by al Faran in August 1995 that served as a prelude to ‘proof of life’ conversations that followed. (Authors’ archive)
31
. In the years following the kidnapping, the families of the hostages announced several rewards for information leading to the return of their loved ones. (Bob Wells)
32
. Jehangir Khan, a commander of the pro-government renegades. (Javid Dar, 2008, courtesy of
Conveyor
magazine)
33
. Kashmiri women passing an Indian Central Reserve Police Force patrol. (Faisal Khan, 2011, courtesy
Conveyor
magazine)
34
. The last confirmed photograph of the hostages. (Bob Wells)
35
. Identity card of renegade field commander Basir Ahmad Wagay, aka ‘the Tiger’. (Authors’ archive)
36
. Renegade commander Azad Nabi, call-sign ‘Alpha’. (Authors’ archive)
37
. Naseer Mohammed Sodozey, a treasurer of Harkat ul-Ansar (the Movement). (Authors’ archive)
38
. Omar Sheikh, from London, arrested in Pakistan in 2002 in connection with the kidnapping of Daniel Pearl. (AP)
39
. Masood Azhar in Pakistan in January 2000. (AP)
THE HOSTAGES
John Childs – a forty-two-year-old explosives and ordnance engineer from Connecticut, USA
Dirk Hasert – a twenty-six-year-old student on a gap year from Bad Langensalza, Germany
Kim Housego – a sixteen-year-old British boy, kidnapped while on a family holiday in Kashmir in 1994
Don Hutchings – a forty-two-year-old neuropsychologist and mountaineer from Spokane, Washington State, USA
David Mackie – a thirty-six-year-old British film producer, kidnapped in 1994 alongside Kim Housego
Keith Mangan – a thirty-three-year-old electrician from Middlesbrough, England
Hans Christian Ostrø – a twenty-seven-year-old actor and director from Oslo, Norway
Paul Wells – a twenty-four-year-old photography student from Blackburn, England
THE WIVES AND GIRLFRIENDS
Anne Hennig – Dirk’s girlfriend, a student
Julie Mangan – Keith’s wife
Catherine Moseley – Paul’s girlfriend, a social worker
Jane Schelly – Don’s wife, a PE teacher and mountaineer
THE FAMILIES
Joseph and Helen Childs – John Childs’ parents, from Salem, upstate New York, USA
Marit Hesby and Anette Ostrø – Hans Christian’s mother, a travel agent, from Oslo, Norway, and his younger sister, a film-maker then based in Stockholm
David and Jenny Housego – former
Financial Times
South Asia Bureau Chief, and his wife, a businesswoman, parents of Kim Housego
Claude and Donna Hutchings – parents of Don Hutchings, from Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, USA
Charlie and Mavis Mangan – Keith’s retired father and his mother, a school dinner lady, from Brookfield, Middlesbrough
James and Joyce Schelly – Jane Schelly’s parents, from Orefield, Pennsylvania, USA
Robert and Anita Sullivan – Julie Mangan’s parents, from Eston, Middlesbrough
Bob and Dianne Wells – Paul’s parents, from Blackburn