Hannah hotline receives 134 calls

Hannah Foster had won a place to study medicine at two universities

A telephone hotline set up in India by the parents of murdered English schoolgirl Hannah Foster has received 134 calls in just 24 hours.

The Fosters are in India to raise the profile of the prime suspect in the case, who flew there after Hannah was strangled in Southampton in March 2003.

They are currently in Maninder Pal Singh Kohli's home city of Chandigarh in the Punjab, publicising the inquiry.

Information from the calls will be passed on to Punjabi police.

Trevor and Hilary Foster arrived in India on Sunday for the 11-day trip that they hope will shed light on the whereabouts of Mr Kohli and raise awareness of the five million rupee reward (£70,000) offered for information leading to an arrest.

They gave a press conference to the Indian media in New Dehli on Tuesday, where they launched the toll-free nationwide hotline, before travelling to Chandigarh where Mr Kohli was last seen by his family.

All his family are from an area outside Chandigarh. We are clinging onto that as hope Trevor Foster

They made a second plea for help in the Punjabi capital city on Wednesday.

Addressing a news conference, the Fosters recounted painful details of 17-year-old Hannah's disappearance, the discovery of her brutalised body and the trauma suffered by the family in the months since.

Trevor Foster, 53, said: "We can't really believe that after all this time the information is not out there."

His wife, Hilary, 47, said bringing Hannah's killer to justice was now like a mission to her.

She told reporters: "We miss Hannah terribly. We think of her every day, our house feels empty without her."

Moved to tears over what her young daughter was made to suffer, Mrs Foster said she hated to even think about the suspect.

Det Supt Alan Betts, leading the inquiry in Hampshire, has also travelled to India with the Fosters, meeting with his police counterparts in the Punjab.

'No reason to hide'

He says he is confident in their investigation.

But a senior Punjabi police officer says the suspect may have managed to escape primarily because of an initial delay by British detectives in providing information about his involvement in the case.

The Fosters will remain in Chandigarh for three days, during which they are due to meet senior police officers. They are also likely to meet the state's chief minister Amarinder Singh on Friday.

On Tuesday in New Delhi, Mrs Foster told BBC Radio Five Live the response to their trip had been "beyond their wildest dreams" - making front page headlines across India.

She said: "We are clinging on to the fact this man, Maninder Pal Singh Kohli, is a Sikh.

Maninder Pal Singh Kohli is the prime suspect

"My understanding is that 80% of Sikhs are confined to the Punjab area and he's very much a family man.

"All his family are from an area outside Chandigarh. We are clinging on to that as hope."

At the press conference, Mr Foster broke down as he told the Indian media that Mr Kohli fled Britain for his parents' home in the Punjab, but ran away before local police could arrest him.

"If this man is innocent, then he has no reason to hide. All we are concerned about is justice," Mr Foster said.

Mr Kohli, who lived in Southampton with his wife and two young children, went to India two days after Hannah's body was found in undergrowth in West End, on the outskirts of the city.

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Anyone with information on the whereabouts of Maninder Pal Singh Kohli is asked to contact Hampshire Police on 0845 045 45 45 from mainland UK or [phone] from outside the UK.