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German tourist feared abducted in Ladakh

A German tourist, Rolf Harfurth, has been reported missing and is feared abducted by the terrorists responsible for the murder on Tuesday of three Buddhist monks at Rungdum in the frontier region of Ladakh.

The investigation launched into the gunning down of the monks revealed that a foreign national was also in the truck in which the militants were travelling, a police spokesman said.

The militants had brought the foreigner down from the truck about 20km further away from the scene of the crime, towards Panikar.

It is still unclear whether they took Harfurth away or released him, the spokesman said, adding that a search has begun in Kargil and areas adjacent to the location where the militants had alighted from the truck.

He said enquiries from Zanskar had revealed that a German national bearing passport number 4007889390 who was putting up at a hotel there had left for Kargil on July 11, the day the three Buddhist monks were killed by terrorists at Rungdum on the Kargil-Zanskar Road.

It is possible that the foreigner travelling in the truck was the same German national, the spokesman said.

Police achieved the breakthrough when they arrested the driver of the truck in which the five extremists had travelled before killing the monks.

The driver, Nazir Ahmad Bakshi, was arrested and his truck seized, the spokesman said, adding that others who had been travelling in the truck were also being questioned.

UNI

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