CONCERN for the safety of hostage Paul Wells is mounting as bloody battles break out in the region where he is thought to be held.

A gun battle left 22 Jammu-Kashmir Liberation Front rebels dead, including its chief Shabir Siddique.

The bloodbath means almost the entire leadership of a breakaway section of the JKLF has been wiped out.

Tension in the region is high after the Indian government called elections.

But the front's UK spokesman, Azmat Khan, said the killings would not affect its involvement to free the Blackburn hostage.

He said: "They were a breakaway group so, in that sense, it has not damaged the JKLF as such.

"But further violence may cause a danger to the hostages and captors involved."

Ian Hughes, press and information spokesman at the British High Commission in New Delhi, said: "The weather here is better and that will mean the hostages' conditions will improve because they will not be cold.

"Tensions in the Kashmir Valley are high at the moment and there are frequent and bloody battles.

"There are a number of groups trying to secure the hostages' release but, unfortunately, they are concentrating more on the fighting."

Paul, 25, of Bracken Close, Feniscowles, was kidnapped while trekking in the Indian province of Jammu Kashmir last summer.

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