security forces question shepherds about the whereabouts of the hostages. (AP Photo/Qaiser Misra)
20. Don Hutchings, supposedly injured following a botched Indian security force operation. (Authors’ archive)
21. Hans Christian Ostrø’s corpse at Anantnag police station in south Kashmir. (Marit Hesby)
22. The hostages soon after they arrived in the Warwan Valley. (Marit Hesby)
23. Two views from Mardan Top, at the southern end of the Warwan Valley. (Authors’ archive)
24. David Mackie and Kim Housego were seized by Pakistan-backed militants in June 1994 and held for seventeen days. (AP)
25. Letter written by Hans Christian Ostrø to his family and the Norwegian Embassy shortly after his capture. (Marit Hesby)
26. Ostrø arranged for several batches of photographs, on which he wrote cryptic clues as to the hostages’ condition and location, to be smuggled out of the Warwan. (Marit Hesby)
27. The contents of Hans Christian Ostrø’s money belt, recovered from his tent at Zargibal. (Authors’ archive)
28. Press conference given by Jane Schelly and Julie Mangan, Srinagar, July 1995. (Authors’ archive)
29. Photograph of Paul Wells thought to have been taken in the wooden guesthouse in Sukhnoi village, Warwan, where the hostages were kept for several weeks. (Bob Wells)
30. Photograph taken by al Faran in August 1995 that served as a prelude to ‘proof of life’ conversations that followed. (Authors’ archive)
31. In the years following the kidnapping, the families of the hostages announced several rewards for information leading to the return of their loved ones. (Bob Wells)
32. Jehangir Khan, a commander of the pro-government renegades. (Javid Dar, 2008, courtesy of Conveyor magazine)
33. Kashmiri women passing an Indian Central Reserve Police Force patrol. (Faisal Khan, 2011, courtesy Conveyor magazine)
34. The last confirmed photograph of the hostages. (Bob Wells)
35. Identity card of renegade field commander Basir Ahmad Wagay, aka ‘the Tiger’. (Authors’ archive)
36. Renegade commander Azad Nabi, call-sign ‘Alpha’. (Authors’ archive)
37. Naseer Mohammed Sodozey, a treasurer of Harkat ul-Ansar (the Movement). (Authors’ archive)
38. Omar Sheikh, from London, arrested in Pakistan in 2002 in connection with the kidnapping of Daniel Pearl. (AP)
39. Masood Azhar in Pakistan in January 2000. (AP)
THE HOSTAGES
John Childs – a forty-two-year-old explosives and ordnance engineer from Connecticut, USA
Dirk Hasert – a twenty-six-year-old student on a gap year from Bad Langensalza, Germany
Kim Housego – a sixteen-year-old British boy, kidnapped while on a family holiday in Kashmir in 1994
Don Hutchings – a forty-two-year-old neuropsychologist and mountaineer from Spokane, Washington State, USA
David Mackie – a thirty-six-year-old British film producer, kidnapped in 1994 alongside Kim Housego
Keith Mangan – a thirty-three-year-old electrician from Middlesbrough, England
Hans Christian Ostrø – a twenty-seven-year-old actor and director from Oslo, Norway
Paul Wells – a twenty-four-year-old photography student from Blackburn, England
THE WIVES AND GIRLFRIENDS
Anne Hennig – Dirk’s girlfriend, a student
Julie Mangan – Keith’s wife
Catherine Moseley – Paul’s girlfriend, a social worker
Jane Schelly – Don’s wife, a PE teacher and mountaineer
THE FAMILIES
Joseph and Helen Childs – John Childs’ parents, from Salem, upstate New York, USA
Marit Hesby and Anette Ostrø – Hans Christian’s mother, a travel agent, from Oslo, Norway, and his younger sister, a film-maker then based in Stockholm
David and Jenny Housego – former Financial Times South Asia Bureau Chief, and his wife, a businesswoman, parents of Kim Housego
Claude and Donna Hutchings – parents of Don Hutchings, from Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, USA
Charlie and Mavis Mangan – Keith’s retired father and his mother, a school dinner lady, from Brookfield, Middlesbrough
James and Joyce Schelly – Jane Schelly’s parents, from Orefield, Pennsylvania, USA
Robert and Anita Sullivan – Julie Mangan’s parents, from Eston, Middlesbrough
Bob and Dianne Wells – Paul’s parents, from Blackburn
WESTERN DIPLOMATS AND INVESTIGATORS
Philip Barton – First Secretary at the British High Commission, New Delhi
Tim Buchs – Second Secretary at the US Embassy, New Delhi
Frank Elbe – German Ambassador to India
Sir Nicholas Fenn – British High Commissioner to India
Tore Hattrem – Political Officer at the Norwegian Embassy, New Delhi
Gary Noesner – lead hostage negotiator of the FBI’s Crisis Negotiation Unit
Commander Roy Ramm – hostage negotiator, head of Scotland Yard’s specialist operations
Arne