Workers Abducted by ISIS in Iraq Are Confirmed Dead

The man named, Harjit Masih, managed to run from the site, and after his return claimed that all the 39 Indians were killed by the ISIS in the Islamic country. “He was not willing to tell me how he escaped”, she said. Overall, Iraqi forces initiated an offensive in October 2016, to retake the city and succeeded in their efforts in July 2017. The bodies were then exhumed and sent to Baghdad for DNA testing.

Some identity cards and personal belongings were also found. “So we started conducting DNA tests”.

Swaraj said ID cards, long hair and the kada bracelets traditionally worn by Sikh men were recovered from the grave of the workers, who mostly hailed from Punjab state. The workers were trying to leave Mosul when they were intercepted and taken hostage by the ISIS fighters.

President Ram Nath Kovind and Prime Minister Narendra Modi today expressed grief over the killing of 39 Indian workers in Iraq and said all Indians stand by the bereaved families of Mosul victims. “The plane carrying the bodies will first reach Amritsar, then Patna and then go to Kolkata”. He added that he was brought back to India within weeks of the shootout, but was “released” by the government months later.

Harjit said that he was confined for a year by Indian Government authorities and was compelled not to reveal that the 39 missing Indians were killed at point-blank range in front of him.

Singh said the government earlier trusted on unreliable sources and maintained that they were safe and were held hostage at an undisclosed place.

Twenty-four of them belonged to Punjab, and there’s anger and resentment among the families about being given false hope.

“They were killed in front of my eyes”, he repeated Tuesday from his home in a northern Indian village.

“His was a cock-and-bull story”, Swaraj said.

“I only heard what the minister said on television”.

Kin of victims have been asking her that why were they not told about the death of their relatives before the parliament, to which Sushma replied, “It is parliamentary procedure to first inform the house, so it was my duty”, adding that handing over bodies without verification just to close the files would have been a “sin”. We received the final confirmation only last night.

“Sushmaji had made a statement in Parliament that the day the government gets concrete proof of their death or being alive, the Parliament will be informed”, said Singh. I am waiting to speak with her.

The Indian government got in touch with Iraqi officials and former Ambassador Suresh Reddy was dispatched to Mosul.

“This is complete failure of MEA and the government of India”, he tweeted.

CPI (M) General Secretary Sitaram Yechury also wanted the Modi government to clarify why it kept giving the families of the abductees false hope of being alive for the past three years. “Can there be anything more shameful than this?”