39 Indians missing in Iraq’s Mosul since 2014 have died: Sushma Swaraj

Mangalore Today News Network

New Delhi, Mar 20, 2018 : External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj on Tuesday declared that 39 Indians, who were missing in Iraq’s Mosul since 2014, are dead. ’’Out of the 40 who were kidnapped, one person managed to escape, and others were confirmed dead after DNA samples were matched from bodies exhumed from a mound, ’’ EAM Swaraj said in Rajya Sabha.

 

Swaraj had earlier refused to declare them dead without concrete proof, saying this would be amount to "committing a sin".

"Declaring anyone dead without proof is a sin and I won’t commit a sin," Swaraj had said in the Lok Sabha, responding to allegations that she was "misleading the house" on whether the Indians were alive.

Sushma Swaraj had then asserted that it was the government’s duty to keep looking for the Indians, given that so far, "there are no bodies, no bloodstains, no list, no ISIS videos."

The group of Indian labourers, mostly from Punjab, was taken hostage by ISIS when it overran Iraq’s second largest city Mosul in 2014. The workers were trying to leave Mosul when they were intercepted.



courtesy:Zeenews