Troops search Kashmir valley for hostages' graves

Indian troops are hunting again for the graves of British hostages Keith Mangan and Paul Wells. They launched a massive military combing operation on Monday for the remains of the four Western backpackers who were kidnapped in July 1995 by a dozen separatist gunmen, while on a Himalayan trek in Kashmir.

Suspected grave sites were dug up, according to police sources, in Magan Forest after a captured Harkut ul Ansar militant corroborated an earlier testimony that the four hostages were murdered last December. Officials ordered a search in a wooded area above Kokarnag in the Kashmir valley. It is the same spot that Scotland Yard, the FBI and German canine specialists examined last spring.