Hope lives on...

Mukhtar Ahmad in Srinagar

Relatives of Paul Wells and Keith Mangan -- the two Al-Faran-abducted British tourists -- heaved a sigh of relief on Thursday, as a Scotland Yard team concluded that the skeleton exhumed recently in the valley does not belong to either.

The exhumation had been carried out by the Jammu and Kashmir police's Special Task Force from Akingam village, after a suspected militant claimed that Wells had been buried there.

While speculations had flown skyhigh -- the home ministry officials insisted they were 'almost sure' it was the Britisher's -- the villagers had maintained it belonged to a foreign mercenary.

The Scotland Yard team had, complete with medical records of the two Britons, arrived in Srinagar Wednesday.

"The dental records do not match at all," sources said.

However, no official announcement have been made about the results. "The report is awaited," police officials said.

While this development has loaned the grieving relatives some peace of mind, the efforts to come to a firm conclusion about the four hostages's fate has received another blow. Since July 1995, speculation and media reports had swung the relatives between cautious hope and deep despair.

The relatives are expected yet again in the valley next month. Neither the state government nor the investigators associated with the crisis, however, feel the hostages are alive. Meanwhile, samples of the remains have been sent to New Delhi for advanced DNA tests.