The mystery over the 39 missing Indians in Iraq has deepened further after media reports claimed that the Badush jail in Mosul where they were kept, and were last traced to, has been destroyed completely and there is strong possibility that they were killed by the fleeing ISIS men.
The reports came week after External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj had said quoting sources that these men were probably in a jail in Badush where fighting was still going on. Her statement came following the return of her deputy VK Singh from Mosul, liberated from ISIS control in early July, where he was sent to expedite the rescue and search work for these missing Indians.
But the fresh media reports appear to corroborate the statement of one of the kidnapped Indians Harjeet Masih, who had claimed that all the Indians were shot dead by ISIS. Masih was one the 40 Indians kidnapped from Mosul in Iraq in June 2014. He escaped from ISIS clutches, and in November 2014, he claimed that four to five days after their abduction, the ISIS took them to a hill top and shot them. Masih claimed he was hurt in the leg but escaped by pretending to be dead. He said chances for survival of other Indians were bleak.
Nevertheless, Sushma had told Parliament that Masih’s story was full of contradictions and the Government had six sources which said these men have not been killed. “One option was to stop the search believing his story... the other option is that due to the contradictions we shall not accept it and keep the search on. logic says we shall not accept his statement and keep the search on,” she had added.
last week, the Iraqi envoy to India, Fakhri H Al-Issa, said possibly these men could have been taken to Raaqa in Syria by the fleeing ISIS. And Sushma expected that Foreign Minister of Iraq Dr Ibrahim al-Jaafari, who will be arriving in New Delhi on Monday, might bring some news about these 39 Indians.
With fresh reports of Indians not being in Badush, the Opposition has decided to corner the Government on this issue in the coming week in Parliament. “The information given by the External Affairs Minister in Parliament is misleading. We should be concerned about whether they are alive or where they are. If the prison is not there, we should look into whether the MEA verified the information,” Congress leader Kapil Sibal said. The AAP also hit out seeking the Government’s explanation even as the kin of the 39 Indians are expected to arrive in Delhi to meet Sushma and others.
Defending Sushma and the Centre, BJP chief Amit Shah, who is in Jaipur on a three-day Rajasthan tour, said the Government is not misleading the nation and the search is underway to locate the 39 missing Indians.
Highly placed sources told The Pioneer that the Indian Government had sufficient evidence that 39 Indians were alive at the time Masih claimed they were shot. “These 39 Indian men were being used as labourers by the ISIS. There were specific inputs by several of Indian Government’s ‘friendly sources’ in Iraq that these men were made to cook and do other work for the ISIS terrorists which was duly cross-verified,” they said.
Moreover, sources said, while the Indian Government has several reasons to believe that these men are alive, there is no specific evidence to prove they are dead. They said in case they were killed in Badush jail or any other area their belongings like clothes, identity papers, or even the kada worn in hand (since most of them are from Punjab) would have been found among the dead bodies.
India has sought the help of Iraqi forces to keep an eye on any evidence about their identity as they clear the area from ISIS control.
Besides, it is the Government’s policy to keep searching for its citizens till there is a clear evidence of them being dead. Sources pointed out that in this case till any evidence is found the Government will wait for at least seven years before declaring them dead. Besides, there have been instances where the American Special Forces have rescued their citizens from the ISIS after three years of their captivity. Similarly, a six-year-old Iraqi girl was last month reunited with her family after three years of kidnapping by ISIS. With such examples before them, one official said, India cannot give up so easily until it has something concrete in its hand to call off the search.
“When I say they are alive, I take up a greater responsibility on myself to search for them…In the last two years I have not abandoned any Indian citizen. They may be alone, in groups or in captivity… At present, Father Tom is in captivity, these 39 people are also held as hostage. My efforts will be to bring back each and every Indian citizen, whether they are stuck or they are held hostages, eventually, sooner or later,” Sushma had said during her annual press conference last year.
