NEW DELHI, India, Sep 12 (AP) -- Seventeen tourists walked free Tuesday after being held in a guest house for four days by a Buddhist group seeking more autonomy for its Himalayan valley, United News of India reported.

The Jammu-Kashmir state government was sending a helicopter to pick up the tourists, mostly Europeans and Australians, United News said.

The Zanskar valley has 18,000 people, mostly Buddhists whose origins are in Tibet. They want their own autonomous council and accuse the government of neglecting their isolated valley, where snow closes the only road for most of the year.

United News said the tourists were freed after state officials spoke to the leader of the All Party Zanskar Action Committee, which leads the autonomy campaign. Details of the talks were not immediately available.

The government is negotiating in an attempt to win the release of four Western tourists held in Kashmir for 10 weeks under a death threat by Kashmiri militants.

The four -- Donald Hutchings, 42, of Spokane, Wash.; two Britons and a German -- were captured by Al-Faran militants in the Himalayas. A fifth hostage, Hans Christian Ostro of Norway, was beheaded four weeks ago.

The guerrillas are demanding freedom for 15 jailed rebels. India has refused for fear of encouraging more kidnappings in Jammu-Kashmir, where dozens of militant groups are fighting for independence.

More than 12,000 people have been killed since guerrillas began fighting in late 1989 for independence in Jammu-Kashmir, the only Muslim majority state in mostly Hindu India.