There have been cases in the past where Indians in the middle-eastern and African regions have gone missing as well as executed by terrorist elements. Similar case has happened, this time in the country of Iraq, where 39 Indians who reportedly went missing in Irag in 2014 have now been declared dead.
Sushma Swaraj met with the family members of the missing Indians in Iraq
The grim news was confirmed by India’s external minister Sushma Swaraj. She said in the Rajya Sabha session that a deep penetration radar confirmed the death of the Indian hostages taken away from Mosul. The mortal remains were then exhumed and sent to Baghdad (Iraq’s capital) for DNA verification.
Sushma Swaraj said,
“Yesterday, we got information that DNA samples of 38 people have matched and DNA of the 39th person has matched 70 percent. General VK Singh will go to Iraq to bring back mortal remains of Indians killed in Iraq. The plane carrying mortal remains will first go to Amritsar, then to Patna and then to Kolkata.”
Congress minister Shashi Tharoor said,
“This is saddening for every Indian, rest I would ask why was this information delayed by the govt, they should tell how it happened, when they died. Also, the way government gave high hopes to the families was not right.”
The background is that the 39 Indians were construction workers, mostly from Punjab, and were working for an Iraqi company in Mosul. The ISIS terrorist group took them as hostage in 2014 when the workers were trying to leave Mosul.
You can catch the entire declaration in the below video,
