Dirk Hasert

Dirk Hasert (born August 14, 1969) was a German tourist kidnapped in Kashmir. He was a student in Erfurt. Hasert, who was travelling through the Kashmir region in 1995, was kidnapped on or around 8 July, 1995, together with Donald Hutchings (USA), Hans Christian Ostrø (Norway), Keith Magan (UK) and Paul Wells (UK). A Pakistan based separatist group, Al-Faran, claimed responsibility. Hasert was 25 years old at the time of the kidnapping.
Hasert's fate up to this date is not clear. There were reports that he had been sighted in the village Hakura sometime before Christmas of 1995. However, Nasir Mehmood, previously Head of Finance of the rebel group Harkat-Ul-Ansar stated in 1996 (after his arrest) that Hasert and three other Western hostages had been killed on 13 December 1995 in the Magam Region. In November 1998, E. N. Rammohan, Head of the Indian Border Security Force stated that in his opinion, the hostages had been killed "a long time back". In October 2000, Indian police exhumed a body in a graveyard in Doru village (Anantang District of South Kashmir) and subjected it to DNA testing to ascertain whether it was that of one of the Western hostages. It turned out not to be the body of Paul Wells.
The Jammu and Kashmir government on 28 January 2003 issued death certificates for the four kidnapped hostages.

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