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KVK Rao says

hostages are

safe, healthy

SRINAGAR: The four Western hostages held by guerrillas in Kashmir are safe and healthy, the governor Jammu and Kashmir state said on Thursday.

Governor K.V. Krishna Rao, speaking to Reuters Television in an interview, ruled out swapping "hardcore" jailed militants for the hostages and said while a rescue raid would be risky, it remained an option.

Rao said a government intermediary last contacted Al-Faran militants on Wednesday. "So far they (Al-Faran) have spared the lives of these hostages," he said. "They're all safe, quite healthy."

Rao said India had changed its policy towards captors since 1990 when it exchanged militants for a former government minister's daughter. "We cannot release hardcore militants," he said.

Rao, a former Indian army chief, said a rescue mission was not a sensible option and the three foreign countries whose nationals were held by Al-Faran had all counselled against such a move.

"If all the countries involved tell us they are willing to accept the risks, then we'll consider launching the operation," he said. "No problem launching the operation but we cannot guarantee the safety of the hostages."

TOKYO: Former Pakistan cricket captain Imran Khan said on Thursday the beheading of a Norwegian hostage in Kashmir should be condemned universally as terrorism, not turned into a political point-scoring exercise.

Speaking at a news conference at Tokyo's Foreign Correspondents' Club, Imran condemned the killing by the guerrilla group holding four other tourists hostage but said the political row that had broken out between India and Pakistan over the killing was futile.

On Tuesday, Indian Prime Minister P.V. Narashima Rao said the killing of 27-year-old Hans Christian Ostroe was "a picture of how brutally terrorists are working in Pakistan".

The former sports hero said the bickering would achieve nothing and called for Al-Faran to be regarded as a "militant", not a "Muslim" organisation.

"What these terrorists have done is completely against the ways of Islam," Imran said.

He reiterated that he had no political ambitions.

"I can make more noise outside politics, because the corrupt system in Pakistan means that if I were elected, I wouldn't be able to change anything," Imran said.

He said he did not want to become prime minister and said the "super-wealthy" politicians who ask for the votes of the people "should be disqualified from standing".

Asked whether he would prefer a post as chairman of Pakistan's cricket selectors, Imran said: "There are more important problems to deal with than cricket. I am now setting up a programme to deal with Pakistan's illiteracy problem."-Reuter