Iraq hostages’ families wait for a miracle

Chandigarh: Hope is the last thing to die. More so, in the case of Krishna Devi who firmly believes that one day she will get a phone call from her son Parminder Kumar who was kidnapped by ISIS in Iraq, along with over 40 other Punjabi youths.

Parminder Kumar, a carpenter from Balachaur in Nawanshar district, left for Iraq in 2011, just six months after his marriage to Anju. “All my tears have dried. There is no clarity about the fate of my son,” said an inconsolable Krishna Devi. 

Every ring in the family telephone raises the disheartened mother’s hope that it might bring some good news. The wait has continued for over three years. She lives with her husband, who retired from Army, and her daughter-in-law and grandson. Anju was pregnant when Parminder went abroad. Their six-year-old son has never seen his father.

Parminder used to send money to the family till 2013 but in 2014 he, along with 40 other men, was captured by the ISIS and there was no communication. The story of families of other missing men is no different. Life for 40-year-old Manjeet Kaur of Raurki Kalan village near Phillaur is tough as she is bringing up three children on her own.

Her husband, Devinder Singh, a welder, left for Iraq in 2012 and has not returned since. She still remembers that she last spoken to him over phone on June 15, 2014. “I have to look after my children. My mother-in-law passed away long ago and my father-in-law died soon after my husband went abroad,” she said.

Manjeet Kaur gets Rs 20,000 from the government every month, like all other dependents of people missing in Iraq, but she is forced to sew clothes to supplement the family income.

After her interaction with Union minister Sushma Swaraj, she believes that all is not lost yet. “The minister has assured us that the government is trying its best to locate the missing people. We are living in the hope that one day we will be able to see our family members,” she said.

Usha Rani, 35, who lives with her six-year-old son in Jalandhar, is not sure if her carpenter Surjit is safe and alive. “There is no proof whether he is dead or alive. It is not easy to live in this state, however, I have not lost hope,” she said. Usha Rani remembers that her husband was trying to come back from Iraq and she even sent him Rs 35,000 for the return ticket. However, he was captured by the ISIS before he could leave Iraq.