AS we approach the fourth anniversary of my son Paul's kidnap and subsequent murder, it fills me with great sadness to learn of the escalation of the violence in Kashmir.

Paul was taken captive by militant separatists on July 4, 1995, and despite extensive inquiries by all concerned governments and ourselves, the families of the five hostages, we still have no information as to their whereabouts.

But owning to the sparse information we do have, we have had to come to the conclusion that they are all dead and most of that information points to January, 1996, as the most likely time of death.

This is what makes the current increase in the fighting so upsetting for us. I know the current hostilities have been going on for the last 20 years and have their roots in the politics of the 1940s, but we are now entering a new millennium, and I find it difficult to understand why Pakistan and India are prepared to carry on this fruitless fight.

Cannot a way be found for both countries to carry on meaningful negotiations, instead of the usual political posturing and try and find a way of involving the people of Kashmir in the process, for any agreement must surely include them?

I know that my son and the other four hostages are not the only people to have lost their lives in Kashmir. Hundreds of Kashmiri men have lost theirs over the last 20 years.

The people of Kashmir deserve better. They, like the rest of us, need and deserve peace, so that we may all bury our dead and also, for their sakes, and to bring peace and stability to an otherwise beautiful and spectacular part of the world.

I repeat, there must be found a way to a settlement of this bitter war in which nobody can be the winner and everybody loses.

R A WELLS, Bracken Close, Blackburn.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.