missing foreigners

June 29,2000

Mystery of missing foreigners
From S.P. Sharma
Tribune News Service

SHIMLA, June 28 — The police has failed to solve the mystery shrouding the disappearance of foreign tourists in the interior areas of the Kulu district.

At least 16 foreigners have gone missing in the valleys of Kulu during the past sometime. However, only one of them could be traced so far.

The police has been receiving reports about missing foreign tourists since 1992. Eight of them were reported missing from the Manikaran valley where they were last seen.

Six of the missing foreign tourists, were women.

A tourist from the Netherlands, Mr Martin Bruzein, and a Russian tourist were recently reported to be missing in the Parvati valley. The Russian Embassy is learnt to have informed the police about the missing tourist.

There have been reports that hundreds of foreigners were residing illegally in the interior areas of the district without valid documents. However, the police is not in a position to visit these farflung areas and verify the papers of each foreigner because of shortage of manpower.

The Superintendent of Police, Kulu, Mr Anurag Garg, told the TNS on telephone that only 26 foreigners were residing in the district on long term visas after having married local residents. They were getting their visas duly renewed.

There was hardly any fresh case of disappearance of foreign tourist, the police claims.

The incidence of involvement of foreigners in drug related crimes was sharply increasing in the Kulu district. As many as nine foreigners have been arrested under the NDPS Act during the past five months and 26 cases have been registered, but during the corresponding period last year 10 foreigners were arrested and 13 cases of drug trafficking were registered. Two foreign women have been booked on the charges of drug trafficking this time against only one last year.

Mr Garg said 32 kg of charas had been seized so far this year against 6 kg last year, 83 gram of brown sugar has been seized this time against only 9 gram last year during the same period and 6.7 kg of "ganja" has been recovered during the past five months, 10 gram of "speed" was seized last year.

According to reports many locals were doing a lucrative business in drugs because of the presence of foreign tourists. A resident of Patiala was arrested last week at Bhuntar and 2.5 kg of charas was recovered from him.

Much of the drug trafficking was being done in the Parvati, Sainj, Manikaran, Faujal and Malana vallies. However, not all foreigners came here because of drugs, many of them visit the area to participate in yoga training.

A special team of CID was set up last year to investigate cases of the missing foreigners. However, the team failed to reach any fruitful conclusion. The Human Rights Commission had also directed the police to properly look into the matter and submit a detailed report on the issue.

The police, in its report to the commission, said all efforts to trace the missing foreigners had proved futile. The crime branch of the CID was investigating some of these cases. Only one Australian tourist, Ms Burfitt Jacqueline Louise, who was reported missing in June 1993, has been traced so far.