HOSTAGE Paul Wells and three others being held hostage by Kashmiri guerrillas are believed to be still alive, the most senior Indian army officer in Kashmir has said.

"We believe the hostages are still alive. We have reasons," said Lt General Jagdish Singh Dhillon.

Photography student Paul, 23, from Blackburn, was seized along with Keith Mangan, 33, an electrician from Middlesbrough, and Americans Donald Hutchings and John Childs as they trekked in the Himalayan mountains last July.

Childs escaped to safety four days later, but on the same day the Al-Faran militant guerrillas kidnapped German Dirk Hasert and Norwegian Hans Christian Ostroe.

Ostroe's beheaded body was found in a remote Kashmiri forest on August 13.

The four remaining men have now been held longer than any other foreign hostages in a six-year rebellion against Indian rule.

Fears for the captives' safety grew earlier this month when a captured Kashmiri militant told Indian officials that he believed they had been killed.

But a senior Kashmir government official denied reports that suggested their graves had been found.

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