Why Modi government is being blamed for misleading Indians over death of 39 people in Iraq
In a tragic development, Union external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj on Tuesday (March 20) confirmed that 39 Indians who were captured by ISIS in Mosul, Iraq, in 2014 are dead. The statement was made by Swaraj in Rajya Sabha amid raucous protests.
While 31 of those abducted were from Punjab, the rest were from Himachal Pradesh, Bihar and West Bengal.
The news may have brought closure to families who were awaiting the return of their loved ones, however, it has come as a shock for the kin of the deceased, who until now believed them to be alive.
The deceased were mostly construction workers.
Here's what is now known about the tragic incident:
When did they die?
While it is not immediately known when the Indians were killed, their bodies were recovered from a mass grave in Badosh, a village in northwest of Mosul, and their identities established through DNA testing, Swaraj told Parliament.
The 39 people were kidnapped by ISIS in Mosul in 2014. Until October 2017, both India and Iraq had maintained that all 39 could be alive. However, relatives of the deceased were made to undergo DNA test in 2017 to figure out if any of the bodies discovered from the mass graves of Mosul belonged to them.
Story of the 'lone survivor'
Harjit Masih, the lone Indian worker who reportedly escaped from Islamic State captivity in Iraq in June 2014, claimed he was shot in the leg, but managed to flee.
Masih had in 2017 said that in June 2014, ISIS terrorists entered the factory where he worked along with the 39 others and kidnapped them. Later, Masih said, "...they forced us to sit on our knees, in a row, and opened fire. I received a shot in my right leg and was covered with bodies. I fell unconscious. Next day, when I regained consciousness, I found all my fellow workers dead."
However, Swaraj dismissed Masih claims during her statement in Rajya Sabha. "He was not willing to tell me how he escaped," she said.
Why families are alleging they were misled
Manjeet Kaur, wife of Davinder Singh, who is among the dead, told ANI that the government kept telling them all along that he was alive. Kaur had last spoken to her husband on June 15, 2014.
Dimplejeet, sister of Dharminder Kumar (one of the deceased), said the government tried to mislead the families all along. "The government was giving us false promises every time we met them. Even recently, we were told that nothing happened to Dharminder and he would be home soon. What was the need to lie to us? The government should have been little more sympathetic to us. We wanted him back," she said.
Congress MP Sashi Tharoor too targeted the government for "giving false hope to the nation".
Sad news of the confirmation of the deaths of 39 Indians in Iraq. Thoughts & prayers are w/their families. But why did the Govt give false hope to the nation for three and a half years that the people were still alive? That was disappointing behaviour.
— Shashi Tharoor (@ShashiTharoor) March 20, 2018
Government's clarification
In July 2017, Swaraj told Parliament that she would not declare that the 39 Indians were dead without concrete proof. "It is a sin to declare a person dead without concrete evidence. I will not do this sin," Swaraj had said in the Lok Sabha.
At that time, Swaraj had said that there is no concrete evidence that the 39 Indians abducted from Mosul in Iraq have been killed. She had also said that the government would continue the efforts to trace the missing Indians.
New Delhi had sought Iraq's help in locating the missing Indians after Iraqi forces recaptured Mosul from IS.
#WATCH live from Delhi: EAM Sushma Swaraj addresses the media on the issue of 39 Indians killed in Iraq's Mosul. https://t.co/4S4yK3yAA2
— ANI (@ANI) March 20, 2018
On Tuesday, Swaraj said, "I had said that I will not declare anyone dead without substantive proof... Today I have come to fulfil that commitment."
In 2014, India had issued a travel advisory telling its citizens to not travel to Iraq, and those already there to leave.
India had also been active in negotiating the release of other citizens captured in West Asia. A group of 46 Indian nurses were freed in July 2014 by IS after remaining trapped in Iraq for more than a week.
Mortal remains
The mortal remains of the dead will be brought back to India on a special plane and handed over to their relatives.
Minister of state for external affairs, General VK Singh, will go to Iraq to bring back the remains of the Indians.
Swaraj said, "The plane carrying mortal remains will first go to Amritsar, then to Patna and then to Kolkata."