The head of a Kashmiri separatist group has promised to free an Israeli tourist its members took hostage last week near the northern Indian city of Srinagar, but only to a U.N. representative.
Amanola Khan, leader of the Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front, a Moslem group seeking the separation of Kashmir from India, told Israel Radio on Sunday that his group does not trust Indian officials.
Speaking from a base in Karachi, Pakistan, Kahn said he instructed his people to release 22-year-old Yair Yitzhaki, a resident of the old City in Jerusalem, to an emissary from the United Nations.
Meanwhile, the captors have allowed Yitzhaki to be interviewed by reporters in Srinagar and to send taped and written messages to his family, notifying them that he is alive and well.
A companion, Erez Cohen of Ramat Efal near Tel Aviv, was killed in a gun battle with the Kashmiris on June 26. His body was flown to Bombay, where it was waiting to be returned to Israel for burial.
The separatists, apparently out to seize foreign hostages, attacked a party of seven Israelis and a Dutch near Srinagar, the capital of Kashmir province, which borders on Pakistan.
They kidnapped Yitzhaki, who was reported missing and became the object of a search by the Srinagar police.
The other Israelis resisted. Cohen was killed, but three hostages managed to escape, though wounded, and were treated at the military hospital in Srinagar. They sent word that they would return home together regardless of whether they were released from the hospital at different times.
Yitzhaki told reporters in Srinagar that he was first beaten by his captors but their treatment of him has since improved. He said he was promised his freedom as soon as they investigate the gun battle with the Israelis, in which one of their own men was killed.
Moshe Yegar, deputy director general of the Israeli Foreign Ministry, flew to India on Sunday to oversee the situation. There is no Israeli diplomatic representation in New Delhi, since India has only de facto relations with Israel.
But India, especially picturesque Kashmir, is a favorite of Israeli tourists and backpackers. In fact, they were virtually the only foreigners left in Kashmir because of the local unrest.
The JTA Daily News Bulletin will not be published on Friday, July 5, because of the Independence Day Holiday in the United States.
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