39 Indians Killed in Mosul: VK Singh Leaves For Iraq Today to Bring Back Their Mortal Remains

Minister of State (MoS) for External Affairs, VK Singh, has left for Iraq to bring back the mortal remains of the 38 Indians who were killed by terror outfit ISIS in Mosul.

New Delhi, Apr 1: Minister of State (MoS) for External Affairs, VK Singh, has left for Iraq to bring back the mortal remains of the 38 Indians who were killed by terror outfit ISIS in Mosul. Upon his return, Singh will first go to Punjab and then visit West Bengal and Bihar to handover the bodies of the 38 Indian to their families. “The families have been informed,” the minister said before leaving for Iraq. One body hasn’t been identified yet.

“After visiting Baghdad to retrieve the bodies, we will then fly to Amritsar, where we will hand over the bodies of 27 people from Punjab and four bodies from Himachal Pradesh to the families there. Then, we will go to Kolkata to handover the two bodies there. And in Patna, we will hand over the remaining bodies,” Singh was quoted as saying. He will be flying by a C-17 plane.

External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj, on March 20, had informed the Parliament that the 39 Indians, who had gone missing in Iraq’s Mosul after the ISIS took control of the city in 2014, were dead. She had said that the mortal remains will be brought back to the country by VK Singh. The victims — 31 from Punjab, four from Himachal Pradesh and four from Bihar and West Bengal — were construction workers.

Later addressing a press conference, Swaraj had said that she didn’t keep anyone in dark about the death of the 39 Indians. “We had been saying that we neither have the evidence of them being alive nor the evidence of them being dead. We maintained this in 2014 and 2017 and we did not keep anyone in dark. We have not given false hopes to anyone,” Swaraj had said. In July 2017, Sushma Swaraj had said that she would not declare the 39 Indians dead without concrete proof or evidence.

She had also dismissed claims of Harjeet Massi, one of them who escaped from Mosul. “He was not willing to tell me how he escaped,” she said. The minister had said that she had concrete evidence that he was lying. Massi had escaped along with Bangladeshis with the help of a caterer with a fake name Ali.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi had said that Sushma Swaraj and her deputy VK Singh had left “no stone unturned” in trying to trace and bring back the kidnapped Indians. “The MEA and particularly my colleagues Sushma Swaraj and General V K Singh left no stone unturned in trying to trace and safely bring back those we lost in Mosul. Our Government remains fully committed towards ensuring the safety of our sisters and brothers overseas,” the prime minister had said.