Dirk Hasert
Dirk Hasert (born August 14, 1969 , † probably December 13, 1995 , officially declared dead in 2006 ) was a German backpacker and student from Erfurt who was kidnapped in 1995 with other tourists in the Indian region of Kashmir .
Life
Dirk Hasert attended the Salza-Gymnasium in Bad Langensalza . He then studied social pedagogy at the Erfurt University of Applied Sciences .
kidnapping
The then 25-year-old Dirk Hasert hiked as a backpacker with his then 20-year-old girlfriend through the Kashmir region in northwest India on the border with Pakistan . On July 8, 1995, he was together in the crisis region of Kashmir with the British Keith Magan and Paul Wells, the Americans Donald Hutchings and John Childs and the Norwegian Hans Christian Ostro of the Muslim separatist group Al Faran kidnapped, the imprisoned of India 21 comrades wanted to free press . The group threatened to murder the hostages.
His siblings Bernd and Birgit Hasert traveled to Kashmir in 1996 to find out firsthand information about their brother's fate . During the kidnapping, the hostage takers sent various signs of life, a photo and a tape. On July 12, 1995, the American John Childs managed to escape after four days. The Norwegian Hans Christian Ostrø was beheaded by the kidnappers. His body was found on August 13, 1995 near Pahalgam . After genetic analysis, the body found two years earlier was identified as that of the British Paul Wells in January 2000.
Dirk Hasert's whereabouts are still unknown today. The federal government has had no contact with the hostages since November 26, 1995 . Despite efforts and an intensive search in the Kashmir region, there is no trace of the remaining three hostages. Excavations were unsuccessful and the bodies have never been found.
After contact between the Indian authorities and the kidnappers was broken in December 1995, it was assumed that Dirk Hasert had been killed with other remaining hostages. The date given for the murder of the hostages was December 13, 1995. The Federal Foreign Office put the case on file in 2000. Dirk Hasert was declared dead by the Indian government on January 28, 2003. According to German law , he was declared dead on April 13, 2006 by the Erfurt District Court .
literature
- Dirk Hasert, hostage in Kashmir . In: Berliner Zeitung , August 16, 1995
- Waiting for a sign / The kidnappers in Kashmir have been silent for a year . In: Berliner Zeitung , November 27, 1996
Web links
- Kashmir: Terror in Paradise . FOCUS Online, August 28, 1995
- Cashmere hostages: kidnapped for two and a half years , November 17, 1997
- July 8, 1995: Dirk Hasert kidnapped in Kashmir . ( Memento from October 1, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) MDR.DE, July 6, 2006
Individual evidence
- ↑ In a video interview, the military psychologist James Elmer Mitchell stated that Hutchings was a close friend and that his death led him to grapple with Islam.
- ↑ nytimes.com
- ↑ https://www.tagesschau.de/multimedia/video/video-639791.html
- ↑ German Bundestag Printed Matter 13/5270 of 11 July 1996 bundestag.de, July 11, 1996
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Hasert, Dirk |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | German student who was kidnapped in Kashmir |
| DATE OF BIRTH | August 14, 1969 |
| DATE OF DEATH | uncertain: December 13, 1995 |