Officials from USA, Britain and Germany met senior State Government functionaries and also militant leaders lodged in various jails here last week to ascertain the whereabouts of the hostages, sources said.

Significantly, their visit had come even when a number of militants including Ghulam Nabi Baba alias Parvez Baba, deputy supreme commander of the Harkat-ul-Ansar (HUA) had revealed during interrogations that the hostages were killed by their captors about two years ago.

Six foreign tourists were kidnapped by Al-Faran from Pahalgam to press their demand for the release of some jailed militants on July 4, 1995. Of them, Hans Christian Ostro of Norway was beheaded, while another tourist from USA managed to escape from the captivity of the militants.

The remaining four hostages, whose fate is still unknown, are PaulWells and Keith Mangam (both British), Donald Hutchings (USA) and Dirk Hassert (Germany). Mystery shrouds their fate despite repeated appeals by their respective family members and western nations to the militants, besides the announcement of Rs 10 lakh reward by the State Government for information about the hostages.

Sources said the visiting officials met various militant leaders lodged in the jails in Kathua, Jammu and Kot Bhalwal including Sajjad Khan alias Sajjad Afghani, chief commander of HUA, and Parvez Baba. However, the team returned to Delhi empty-handed as all the jailed militants denied having any first hand knowledge about the hostages, saying that they had heard about their execution from others.

Parvez Baba, however, revealed the names of some persons including an employee of the Srinagar Development Authority, saying that they might have some information in the matter, sources said. The visiting officials were of the opinion that they cannot say the hostages were dead.