M A I N   N E W S

special to the tribune
Focus shifts to captive Indians as IS frees 46 Turkish hostages
Shyam Bhatia in London

The fate of Indian construction workers held by Islamic militants in Iraq is back in international focus following Saturday’s release of Turkish hostages.

The freeing of 46 Turkish nationals, including Consul General Ozturk Yilmaz and other diplomatic staff, from Mosul means that Indians are now the single largest group of foreign nationals being held by Islamic State militants.

Like the Turks, the 39 Indians too are being held somewhere near the Northern Iraqi city of Mosul, but, unlike Turkey, New Delhi so far has not managed to free its nationals. Most of the Indian hostages are Punjabis, but there are believed to be two men from Bihar and one from Bengal who are also part of the group. Negotiations to obtain their freedom have until recently been conducted through the humanitarian efforts of the Iraq Red Crescent Society, but these so far have not been fruitful.

Indian officials were more successful in freeing 46 Kerala nurses who were captured from their hospital in Tikrit, close to Baghdad, and taken to Mosul. From there they were taken to Erbil before being handed over to diplomats from the Indian embassy in Baghdad. While they were in captivity, one of the nurses was interviewed on a video tape to confirm she and the others had not been harmed.

When the hostages were taken in June, the Turkish government imposed a gagging order on the country’s media, saying any reporting put the hostages’ lives at risk. Now that the hostages are free, the authorities will release details about how they were released.