THE fight to find student hostage Paul Wells is being hampered because militants who might hold important clues often die before they can be questioned, it was claimed today.

James Bowman, director of the Hostages In Kashmir Campaign, said rebels captured by the security forces could hold the key to the whereabouts of Paul and the three other Westerners captured with him in July 1995.

But most of them were killed during gun battles with Indian security forces operating in the country's state of Jammu Kashmir.

Mr Bowman added: "We would much rather these people be captured alive, rather than dead. Unfortunately the latter seems to be the case in the majority of arrests. If we could get to speak to these people it would be very useful."

Mass killings and arrests are commonplace in the troubled Indian state.

Paul's father, Bob, of Bracken Close, Feniscowles, Blackburn, claims that militant activity and subsequent operations by Indian soldiers had led to heartache for thousands of people in the region.

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