It's easy to imagine how Norwegian tourist Hans Christian Ostro felt on his first view of Kashmir, the picturesque Himalayan valley that has enchanted centuries of travelers, including Marco Polo. Those with extremely strong stomachs might try to imagine his final sensations: Ostro was kidnapped July 8 by a group fighting for Kashmir's separation from India, and last week his emaciated, beheaded corpse was discovered by peasant women collecting firewood on a remote country road. After being identified by his parents, Ostro's remains were flown to New Delhi, where medical examiners concluded that he had been beheaded alive, using the "most barbaric methods." After his death, Ostro's captors carved into the flesh of his abdomen the name of their shadowy, brutal group: al-Faran.

Ostro's killing galvanized the Indian government, which stepped up both negotiating efforts and military preparedness to help free Ostro's four fellow hostages: a German hiker kidnapped a few hours before Ostro and an American and two Britons taken four days earlier. By the end of last week, Indian Black Cat commandos were in Srinagar, Kashmir's summer capital, along with anti terrorism experts flown in from Britain and the U.S. Al-Faran wanted 15 guerrillas associated with Kashmir's separatist movement released from jails. The Indian government was firm. "There is no question of releasing militants," said Rajesh Pilot, the Internal Security Minister. "If such hard-core militants are released, it would damage the morale of our security forces." Agreed the Indian Express, the New Delhi-based daily, in an editorial: "Any leniency shown to them [al-Faran] would only whet their appetite."

No matter how the hostage drama played out, last week's events confirmed that the seven-year turmoil in Kashmir-which has claimed more than 20,000 lives, produced more than 200,000 refugees and decimated the Kashmir Valley economy-has taken an ominous turn. Al-Faran was unknown before it made its first demands in July. It is not allied with any of the mainstream Kashmiri militant organizations, which called a one-day strike last week to protest Ostro's murder. "I condemn this inhumane, barbaric act," said Yasin Malik, 29, leader of the Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front, a group with wide public support in the valley. "This is against the people of Kashmir. If the killers are found to be Kashmiri, we will spare no effort to hang them." John Childs, an American engineer who escaped from al-Faran on July 8, said its members did not appear to be Kashmiri and spoke Urdu, one of Pakistan's national languages. That is the language of their written communications also-including the signature carved in Ostro's corpse.

It seems, then, that Islamic fundamentalist diehards and mercenaries from Pakistan and Afghanistan, who have stolen across the border to fight with local militants, are starting to operate on their own-and at a more brutal level than their Kashmiri counterparts. This is a risk the Kashmiri groups took in getting training, arms and financial aid from Pakistan. Last week the All Parties Hurriyat Conference, which links more than 30 of the normally fractious Kashmiri political and militant organizations, called upon al-Faran to free its hostages. Said Mohammad Umar Farooq, one of the valley's most respected Islamic leaders and the prime mover behind the conference: "We don't know what [al-Faran's] ideology is. This group is not a supporter of the Kashmir movement."

The ranks of non-Kashmiris in the conflict have swelled since the end of the Afghan war in 1992. Indian authorities put the number of foreign fighters between 800 and 1,200-and say it is still growing. Nisar Ahmed Rajput, 18, is one: a former Pakistani high school student, he received training, $100 in cash, a machine gun, grenades and a pack of explosives, but he was caught entering Srinagar because he couldn't speak Kashmiri when stopped by a policeman. In Srinagar jail, he concludes, "We were made fools." Prison mate Sheikh Jamal Din, 22, was born in Afghanistan and came to Kashmir out of sympathy for his fellow Muslims' plight. "I knew I'd be killed or arrested," he says.

Politically, the hostage crisis has been somewhat helpful to New Delhi, which has always denied that the Kashmir problem is anything deeper than exported subversion from Pakistan. Al-Faran's brutality has temporarily taken attention away from the systematic human-rights abuses attributed to Indian counter insurgency forces. Indian leaders took advantage of the distraction: Prime Minister P.V. Narasimha Rao said, "It is widely known that Pakistan is directly behind all acts of disruption in the state." Pakistan denies the charge, and last week al-Faran issued a statement asserting that its members were "Kashmiri Muslims, not foreign agents." Rao wants to hold state legislative elections this fall, in the hope of winning over alienated Kashmiris who may be wearying of the war-and of the outrages of alien groups like al-Faran.

-Reported by Anita Pratap/New Delhi and Dick Thompson/Srinagar