ISIS killed 39 abducted Indians: Govt

New Delhi: Nearly four years after 39 Indian workers were kidnapped by the ISIS in the Iraqi city of Mosul, the government confirmed in Parliament on Tuesday that they have been killed and their bodies, exhumed from a mass grave, will soon be handed over to their families.

The Indians were killed by the ISIS and buried underneath a hillock at Badosh near Mosul, external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj said in Parliament while making the shocking announcement. The families of the missing Indians, who have been in touch with the government, requesting the rescue of their loved ones, learnt of their deaths from TV channels.

Ms Swaraj said the 39 bodies were exhumed after deployment of deep-penetration radars at the hillock. Presence of long hair and kadas (iron bangles) — symbols of the Sikh faith — and non-Iraqi shoes were the initial indications that these were the bodies of the missing Indians.

The DNA of the 39 bodies, Ms Swaraj said, was then matched with the blood of the relatives of the missing Indians.

While the DNA of 38 victims has a 100 per cent match with that of their immediate blood relatives, the DNA of the 39th victim matched 70 per cent with that of his relatives in the absence of his parents.

Ms Swaraj told reporters that out of the 38 confirmed dead, 27 were from Punjab, four from Himachal Pradesh, five from Bihar and two from West Bengal. The 39th Indian, who is yet to be officially declared dead, belongs to Bihar.

Ms Swaraj said minister of state (MoS) for external affairs Gen. (retd.) V.K. Singh will travel to Iraq to bring back the mortal remains in a special plane.

The first stop on the way back would be Amritsar where 27 bodies of those from Punjab and four from Himachal Pradesh would be handed over to the relatives. The aircraft will then travel to Patna and then to Kolkata.

The Opposition parties accused the government of “misleading the nation”, saying that on seven occasions the families were told that the 39 kidnapped Indians were alive.

They also called the government “insensitive” for making the announcement of their deaths in Parliament before intimating the families concerned.

Grieving family members of the victims assailed the government for not informing them about the deaths personally and alleged failure to ensure safe return of their loved ones.

Expressing grief over the deaths, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said in a series of tweets, “Every Indian grieves with those who lost their loved ones in Mosul. We stand in solidarity with the bereaved families and pay our respects to the Indians killed in Mosul. The MEA and particularly my colleagues @SushmaSwaraj Ji and @Gen_VKSingh Ji left no stone unturned in trying to trace and safely bring back those we lost in Mosul.”

A group of 40 Indian workers were taken hostage by terror outfit ISIS when it overran Iraq’s second largest city Mosul in 2014. Of the 40 Indians, one Harjit Masih from Gurdaspur, managed to escape and had claimed to have witnessed the massacre of the others. But the government rejected his claim.

They were working at a construction company near Mosul.

Mr Masih had alleged after his escape that the other Indians had been shot dead by the ISIS, a carnage he claimed to have witnessed. Ms Swaraj told Parliament that Mr Masih had lied about the events.

She said Mr Masih made a getaway before the others were killed after faking his identity and attaching himself to a group of Bangladeshi workers who were spared by the ISIS.

Giving details in Parliament, Ms Swaraj said that when the ISIS overran Mosul, most Iraqis left the city, but Indian and Bangladeshi workers stayed back.

Inquiries from a caterer revealed that the ISIS caught them when they were coming back after meals. They were first taken to a textile factory where Bangladeshi workers were separated and sent to the city of Erbil.

The minister informed Parliament that the caterer stated that he had received a call from one “Ali” who claimed that he was from Bangladesh and should be moved to Erbil, she said, adding Mr Masih had called her up from Erbil but could not say how he had reached there. “He had escaped by faking his identity in the van arranged by caterer” to transport the Bangladeshis to Erbil, she said. When the next day, a count of Indians found one of them missing, they were all moved by the ISIS to Badosh.

Ms Swaraj said the government received information that some people had been killed and buried under a hillock at Badosh (a village in the northwest of Mosul).

MoS for external affairs Gen. (retd.) V.K. Singh then requested the Iraqis for deployment of deep-penetration radars which confirmed the presence of 39 bodies beneath.

The remains were dug out, sent to the Iraqi capital Baghdad where the Martyrs Foundation — an Iraq-based organisation — matched the DNA samples from the bodies and that sent by the Indian government from the immediate blood relatives of those missing. The first sample to be matched was that of one Sandeep Kumar who was among the missing 39. Ms Swaraj said that thereafter the Indian envoy in Baghdad kept informing her of the progress as and when more DNA samples matched. She said the government decided to announce the deaths after 38 of the 39 samples matched.  

The timing of when the bodies were exhumed has not been shared.

Ms Swaraj pointed out that any attempt to search for the bodies in Mosul could have begun only after the liberation of Mosul from ISIS control.

Iraq declared victory over ISIS in Mosul in July last year.

Relatives of the 39 Indians said they had received phone calls from some of the workers five days after Mosul was captured, asking for help.

The government could not say when the hostages had been killed.

Elaborating on why the government did not give indications earlier that the Indians may have been killed, Ms Swaraj said the NDA government does not believe in the dictum of “missing, believed to be killed” and added the government had “not kept anyone in the dark” and had “not given false assurances” to the relatives. She also lambasted the Opposition Congress for playing “cheap politics”.

Ms Swaraj said the government had made all efforts possible to trace the missing Indians. India, she added, is probably the first country which has  managed to bring back all the bodies of its deceased citizens from war-torn Iraq.

Speaking earlier in the day in the Rajya Sabha, Ms Swaraj said, “I had said that I will not declare anyone dead without substantive proof... Today I have come to fulfil that commitment... I had said that closure will be done with full proof. And when we will, with a heavy heart, give the mortal remains to their kin, it will be a kind of closure.”

Later she told reporters, “In the Rajya Sabha, everyone listened to me patiently. I thought the same would happen in the Lok Sabha. However, the Congress led the disruptions under Jyotiraditya Scindiaji... The Congress indulged in very cheap level of politics and crossed the limit. Will we indulge in politics over death as well.”

Speaking with reporters, Ms Swaraj said that it was understandable that the relatives were angry and upset after learning about the death of their kin while pointing out that it was too “premature” to talk about compensation.

Ms Swaraj rubbished reported allegations of the lone survivor Harjit Masih that he was being harassed. “Masih was kept in protective custody. He was not harassed.”

Painful end

• Bodies of 39 Indian construction workers kidnapped in Iraq in 2014 by the ISIS were  recovered from a mass grave
• DNA of 38 victims have matched 100%, the 39th victim’s DNA has matched 70%
• Of the 39 dead, 27 were from Punjab, four from Himachal Pradesh, five from Bihar and two from West Bengal
• Minister of state for external affairs Gen. V.K. Singh will travel to Iraq to bring back the bodies in a special plane
• Victims’ relatives criticised govt for not sharing the information with them in person