On October 1994, a team of policemen brought down the curtains on Omar Sheikh’s first important kidnap drama. The four hostages — Bela Nuss, Christopher Miles Croston, Rhys Patridge and Paul Ridout — knew their kidnapper as ‘Rohit Sharma’ and later, ‘Khalid’. Their statements recorded after their rescue paint a pattern that closely resembles the kidnapping of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl: Omar lured them with lies, secured their trust and attempted to use them as bargaining chips to meet his demands. Since the four statements are repetitive in great parts, we reproduce two of the statements below, verbatim.Statement of Bela Josef Nuss from California, USA I CAME to India on 15th May, 1994 and had travelled around the country for about three months. On 23rd August 1994 I went to  Pakistan for six weeks. And returned to India about 8th of October 1994 and came to Delhi on 13th October 1994 and I was staying at Ajay Guest House in Pahar Ganj.
On 18th Oct 1994, I was taking lunch in a restaurant near my hotel. A man came to my table and asked if he could sit down. He engaged me in conversation and we spoke for about 45 minutes. He tell me his name was Rohit and whom I came to know his correct name as Ahmed Umar Sayed Sheikh. We agreed to get together the next day. On 19th Oct 1994, we met at 5 pm and walked to Connaught Place, and spent about 3 or 4 hours together. Then Mr Rohit invited me for a dinner, the next day at the house of his close friend of his family. The next day, I met Rohit at about 6 pm in my hotel. Mr Rohit was staying in Galaxy Guest House, near my hotel. We took an autorickshaw to Connaught Place and there a van was waiting for us to take us to the house for dinner in North Delhi. The van was sky blue coloured... Don’t say a word: In the van besides myself and Rohit there were two more persons including the driver. The man sitting next to the driver later identified himself as Mr Ali... I later discovered his correct name as Mohd Nazir. After driving for about 15 minutes from Connaught Place, the van stopped on the side of highway and there two persons were sitting on the ground. These two persons also entered the vehicle. After a few minutes, Rohit told me that they are friends of the driver. The driver continued driving for another 15 minutes and one of the persons who had entered the vehicle turned around and grabbed both my wrists tightly. This man later identified himself as Saddiq and the other man who had also entered turned around and pointed a gun at me. This man I have identified at Ghaziabad police station, where his correct name has been shown as Abdul Rahim. At this point Rohit told me that if I would cooperate nothing would be done to him and if I did not, they would not hesitate in blowing off my head. Rohit said ‘‘We want to get back at them. They are all enemy’’. At this point, I enquired from Rohit as to ‘‘who is we are?’’ thereafter Rohit answered ‘‘No more questions’’. Thinking that Rohit is stating about United States, I said I did not know United States is involved, Rohit answered the United States is involved in everything. And asked me to be quiet. Then my wrists were jointly tied with nylon. A burka of black colour was put over my head and I was told to sit lower in the van as I am too tall. At this time, Abdul Rahim sat next to me and placed the gun on my ribs. He kept the gun throughout the entire journey, and I was told not to say a word. After a few minutes the vehicle passed through a check post on the road and a few minutes later another cover of clothes was put over my head and now I could not see anything. After driving for about 15 more minutes, the vehicle came to a stop and I was led outside the van into a room. The room was about 8 ft x 25 ft and it had a cement floor and two mattress. My hands were untied. At this point Rohit explained a few things to me. One, he said they belong to an Islamic religious group and he further told that three Britishers are also kept hostages and myself was the last stage in their plan. They wanted our Government to pressurise the Indian Government to release their friends. I was only to be held hostage for two days. Rohit further told that they wanted to twist the nose of Indian Government. He said don’t worry and he said they would bring books to me for reading and would give me a journal to write, so that after my release, I would be having something to think about. One for the album: ON 26th Oct 1994, a new man with a Polaroid camera took four photos of mine. Two photos I was hold a newspaper of that day and two photos I was holding my passport. In all the four photographs, Abdul Rahim was standing next to me pointing gun towards my head and in the photos Rahim’s head was covered. I was told that these photographs are for Mr Narasimha Rao. On the third day of my captivity Sadiq told me that they were from Kashmir. He said I was their guest and they did not like doing what they are doing. He further told that they are not terrorists and they were doing this because of what Indian army is doing in Kashmir. On the 10th day, Sadiq Nazir and Rahim left. The fourth man remained and a new man came, the man who took the photos on 26th of Oct 1994. Both these persons spoke very little English and I had seen the face of every person during my captivity; and I never heart the name of last person i.e. the person who took the photos. On the morning of 31st Oct 1994, Rahim returned with a Polaroid camera and a gun and they took three more photos and I was told that these photos were for American Embassy. Rahim left and the two man remained by this time I was very angry with my keepers because everything they told me turned out to be a lie. On 31st Oct 1994, at around 1 pm there was a loud banging at the gate outside the building. The two guards jumped up and ran outside. The banging continued and also there was yelling. After about five minutes, police entered into the building and then into my room. They saw me and pointed towards my chain and said I had been so put in this position by Kashmiris. I was freed and at about 2 pm was driven to a police station for questioning. I was later shown a photograph, whom I identified as Mr Rohit. Statement of Christopher Miles Croston, from UK I and Paul Ridout, a British national, arrived in Delhi late on October 12 and took a taxi to the Hotel Ajanta. We stayed the  night there and shifted to Hotel Namaskar the next day.
On October 14, we were sitting on the terrace with another traveller from Britain, Graham Fox. Around 2.30 pm one Rohit Sharma who was already known to Graham Fox came there. We were also introduced to him. Rohit Sharma was wearing a blue Indian jeans with a logo on the back pocket and a coloured shirt. He was quiet tall about six feet, medium built with a short neat beard, gap between front teeth and wore glasses. He spoke fluent English. In a while, he brought a portable chess board and I played with him. He said he was brought up in a London suburb called Woodford and his father was a businessman in import-export. His sister was doing medicine at Oxford and his younger brother was still at school, he said. He said he was doing a masters in politics at the London School of Economics. Rohit said his uncle had died and he was here to look after the village property as his uncle’s sons were irresponsible. He was in India for a month now and once flew to Bombay, he said. He said he had not been to India since childhood and was now spending time travelling around. As a child he was very arrogant, he said adding he was a humble person now. He arm-wrestled for England, he said and showed us some of the techniques. He was strong. Once he applied to Harvard University in the US but his application was turned down, he said. He wanted to know about our (British) politics but quickly understood we were not much interested in politics. He was very interested in asking psychological questions like what sort of people did we think we were and continued to ask several such questions while we were captive. We were talking for an hour when he mentioned a festival being celebrated at Red Fort. We went with him to Red Fort. We were stopped by the guards there for want of passes but managed to sneak in while the guards turned their backs. At the next layer of guard, Rohit said something that impressed the guard to let us in. It happened at many security points but we reached the front of the stage. We returned to the roof restaurant around 8 pm. Graham Fox was with us for half an hour and left us to take a bus to Amritsar. When Graham left, Rohit asked us whether we were interested to visit his village. We said we were interested but would think about it. Around noon the next day — October 15, 1994 — Rohit came back to our room in Hotel Namaskar. Paul and myself said we would go with him the next day. The Saharanpur trap: On October 16 Rohit came to our hotel around 11.30 am. The three of us walked to the New Delhi Railway Station where a light-blue Suzuki van bearing a UP number plate arrived. Then we drove out of Delhi. After two-and-a-half hours journey we had lunch at Cheetal. Then we drove for hours, once stopping briefly for drinks and reached Saharanpur around 7 pm. We were asked to come inside a house and take rest while a jeep would come to take us to the village. We walked into a room lit by candles as there was a power cut then. Rohit walked out. After a minute, Rohit came back with four men with guns and told us we had been taken hostages by the Mujahideen and would be held till the release of 11 of their men who were in prison. Except Rohit, all of their faces were covered. On October 16 Rohit came to our hotel around 11.30 am. The three of us walked to the New Delhi Railway Station where a light-blue Suzuki van bearing a UP number plate arrived. Then we drove out of Delhi. After two-and-a-half hours journey we had lunch at Cheetal. Then we drove for hours, once stopping briefly for drinks and reached Saharanpur around 7 pm. We were asked to come inside a house and take rest while a jeep would come to take us to the village. We walked into a room lit by candles as there was a power cut then. Rohit walked out. After a minute, Rohit came back with four men with guns and told us we had been taken hostages by the Mujahideen and would be held till the release of 11 of their men who were in prison. Except Rohit, all of their faces were covered. Our hands were tied and we were led into another room where we saw another hostage, Rhys, a British national. He was chained.  Soon, we were chained at ankles but untied the ropes in hands. Rohit left, allowing us to speak to Rhys for 10 minutes.
When he came back, he was very much interested in knowing how Rhys felt at seeing us. Was he happy to have someone to speak to but Rhys said no. Rhys was actually annoyed that we were also going to undergo the treatment he has been subjected to. This annoyed Rohit as he thought Rhys would be pleased to meet us. Rohit then started preaching us about how they plotted to take over the world. He said, the British cabinet is run by Jews and so was America. He mentioned about a book The Protocol of the Learned Elders of Zion of the 33rd Degree. The book was banned but he read it, he said and explained about this plot to take over the world. He hated Jews. The next day before he left, he promised us we would be freed in a month. He said his group was responsible for the kidnappings of David Mackie and Kim Housego in Kashmir a few months ago. There was no development until October 18. Two of the guards, Ali and Mohammed, left to be replaced by Kari and Haan. That day evening it was found that Rhys had cut his chain. Hamish came into the room holding a AK-47 rifle. Rhys was asked to stand up and I thought we were all going to be shot at. But Hamish said, ‘‘I am very merciful’’. They took everything out of the room and looked for the blade which was used to cut the chain. The blade was in Rhys’ pack. The next day, October 19, we were given some books, a chess board, a few packs of cards and a ludo. The next day Haan played ludo with us. He was the most friendly of the guards. He was the one who was shot dead during the gun battle prior to our rescue.‘You are our guests’ We started to read the book about the teachings of Islam to try and get into their good books. We used to ask questions about Islam. This seemed to please them particularly Hamish who tried to explain to us with whatever little English he knew. Amir was often seen reading a book about death and Islam. Rohit said his name was Khalid and said ‘Rohit’ was a Hindu name, which he hated. He said negotiations with the Indian government had already started and were going well. This was obviously a lie. He asked us whether we considered ourselves his friends. Of course, we did not want to say no. But we said it was difficult to say yes because we trusted him and he betrayed us. He said he would only kidnap people who he considered intelligent and wanted to spend time with them. He wanted to speak English as much as possible. Khalid was very keen that I write my thoughts on the paper which would be very interesting and useful to look back on. The next morning i.e. October 23, when Khalid left with the commander he took the Lonely Planet guide to India with him. We thought that meant he was going to take more hostages. Rhys told Khalid not to repeat it again and he got annoyed blurting out ‘‘You just don’t understand’’. He said he would go to Bosnia to fight for the Muslims saying he was very upset what had been done to the Muslims there. He said he admired IRA and asked us what we thought of Ireland situation. To keep him happy, we said we sympathised with IRA. He said he dealt with them though briefly, giving some information. He was reading Mein Kampf by Adolf Hitler and was keen to make us read some of the passages about how the Jews were making money out of everybody else. On October 25, Hamish asked for our addresses so that he could communicate with us after we were released. We just gave the post office addresses in Australia. He then promised as a Muslim that we would be released within a month. On October 26, Khalid (Rohit) returned early morning. He had cold and unwell. He had a camera and a newspaper with him. Hamish took about 6 or 7 photos of us with a guard and the newspaper. Apparently, the Indian government wanted proof. He told us to have informed the Indian government that if their demands were not met our heads would be chopped off and sent to the British embassy. Then he left and we never saw him again. On Saturday, I think October 29 or 30, Haan returned saying he had been fighting in Kashmir. He had some slight wounds. We read the Koran on Oct 29 and 30. On November 1, 1994 around 3.30 am we woke up to the sound of gunfire and loud bangs. The doors of our room burst open and three of our guards (Hamish, Ikra and Amin) rushed into the room. We thought we were going to be shot. They tried to smash through one of the window in our room with the butt of AK-47. By this time, we had dived for cover into the smaller room. We could hear exchange of gun fire and remaining guard Haan screaming and shouting. After a short while, we heard the door being broken down. We heard a voice telling us to come out and the chief Supdt. of the Saharanpur police Mr Srivastava walked into the room. We were rescued. Published in KashmirLive of ExpressIndia. |