THE mother of student hostage Paul Wells today held out hope for his safe return today despite a Government admission that he has not been seen alive in almost a year.

Dianne Wells, of Bracken Close, Feniscowles, Blackburn, said she was confident some good would come of a high-profile trip to the Kashmir valley by the partners of two of Paul's fellow captives.

Julie Mangan, the wife of Middlesbrough man Keith Mangan, is touring Jammu Kashmir with the partner of one of the other four Westerners to enlist help in freeing the four captives.

Foreign Office Minister Jeremy Hanley told the Commons last week that the last evidence of life had been on August 28 last year, when the crisis was still less than two months old.

It is now 392 days since the men were captured while trekking in the Kashmir Valley and the Foreign Office has continually sought proof of life or death.

But Mrs Wells added: "In our hearts we are confident that Paul is still alive and will go on believing that.

"We are just carrying on and hoping that something will happen that will make things clearer."

Diplomats maintain that behind-the-scenes efforts to free the hostages are continuing, despite fears that little if anything is being done.

But Mrs Wells is confident that people are still working on her son's behalf and had already been briefed by the Foreign Office that the Al-Faran group responsible may not all be Kashmiris as originally claimed.

She said: "I believe Julie and the other woman have been speaking to ordinary people to uncover clues about the hostages.

"We will know more when they return to Delhi."

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