THE plight of student hostage Paul Wells and his fellow captives will be featured in a television documentary to be screened on their 500th day in captivity.

A crew from the 20:20 Vision team behind The Big Story documentary Searching For Our Sons is currently in Pakistan with Paul's father Bob and relatives of the three other Western captives.

The documentary is due to be screened throughout the ITV network on November 14 - 500 days from the date when the tourists were taken hostage by a Kashmiri separatist group calling themselves Al-Faran.

It is also the date when the Middlesbrough-based campaign to free the hostages will be given its official national launch.

The London-based production team, headed by TV news reporter and presenter Dermot Murnaghan, has been helping Mr Wells and the others retrace the hostages' steps during their current trip to the Indian sub-continent. The party, which also includes Paul's girlfriend Cath Moseley and wife Julie and parents of Middlesbrough man Keith Mangan, 34, has so far visited India and Kashmir. Today, the group was due to address crowds of worshippers at a mosque in the Pakistan capital of Islamabad where they have been staying at the British High Commission since Monday.

Mr Wells said: "The team from 20:20 Vision have been absolutely fantastic with us. They could not have been more helpful."

Mr Wells is due to return to his home in Bracken Close, Blackburn, after the weekend.

He will spend the remainder of his trip in Pakistan and Azad Kashmir, the Pakistani-controlled part of the disputed territory.

Paul's mother Dianne has been in regular contact with her husband throughout his trip.

She said: "I would like to thank people for the help and support they have shown."

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