Tribune News Service
New Delhi, March 20
After a painful wait of around four years, the worst fears of the families of 39 Indians missing in Iraq have been confirmed. All of them were declared dead by the government on Tuesday even as a political row erupted with the Opposition accusing the government of being insensitive for not informing the victims’ families first.
External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj, however, defended the government move in Parliament saying the families of the deceased were not informed beforehand as Parliament is in session and the Houses needed to be informed first.
Edit: Kidnapped Indians killed
She told the Rajya Sabha that the forensic evidence had established the Indians abducted by the Islamic State in Mosul in June 2014 had been killed, following DNA sample match with the bodies. She could not complete her statement in the Lok Sabha due to ruckus created by parties from Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu for the 12th straight day.
“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,” she said.
Swaraj said the mortal remains, which were exhumed from a mass grave in Badush, would be brought back to India on a special plane and handed over to their relatives. Sources in the government said it would take 7-10 days for the bodies to arrive. Of the 39 dead, 27 are from Punjab, four from Himachal Pradesh, six from Bihar and two from West Bengal.
While it was not immediately known exactly when the 39 Indians were killed, their bodies were recovered from Badush—a village northwest of Mosul, and their identities established through DNA testing, she said.
Harjit Masih from Punjab's Gurdaspur, who managed to escape from the clutches of Islamic State, had claimed that he witnessed the massacre of others. The government had rejected his claim. “His was a cock-and-bull story,” Swaraj claimed. “Harjit Masih is an individual, we are a government. Had the government announced deaths based on only Masih’s account, it would have been irresponsible… We are not a ‘missing, believed to be dead’ government,” Swaraj said.
The Congress condoled deaths, but Leader of the Opposition Ghulam Nabi Azad sought to remind the government that it had “assured us last year that the Indians were alive”. The Congress demanded a compensation of Rs 1 crore for every affected family.
“Giving falsehood to people is actually cruel and suggests a certain level of lack of transparency on part of the government,” Congress MP Shashi Tharoor said.
Rajya Sabha MPs from Punjab Ambika Soni and Partap Bajwa and Congress media head Randeep Surjewala said at a joint press conference that Swaraj had reiterated safety of these persons on five occasions, citing multiple third party sources.
“The way Sushma Swaraj lied to the country is saddening and heartbreaking. The nation and the families were misled,” Soni and Bajwa said.
National Conference leader Omar Abdullah said it was “unpardonable” that families of victims had to learn about their heartbreaking loss from television channels instead of the government.
Swaraj accused the Congress of playing “cheap politics”.
Meanwhile, Punjab CM Amarinder Singh called up Swaraj and urged her to provide all assistance to the affected families.
Couldn’t rely on Masih
Harjit Masih is an individual, we are a government. Had the government announced deaths based on only Masih’s account, it would have been irresponsible… We are not a ‘missing, believed to be dead’ government. — Sushma Swaraj, External Affairs Minister
List of Indians killed in Iraq
Punjab
1. Dharminder Kumar
2. Harish Kumar
3. Harsimranjeet Singh
4. Kanwaljit Singh
5. Malkit Singh
6. Ranjit Singh
7. Sonu
8. Sandeep Kumar
9. Manjinder Singh
10. Gurcharan Singh
11. Balwant Rai
12. Roop Lal
13. Devinder Singh
14. Kulwinder Singh
15. Jatinder Singh
16. Nishan Singh
17. Gurdeep Singh
18. Kamaljit Singh
19. Gobinder Singh
20. Pritpal Sharma
21. Sukhwinder Singh
22. Jasvir Singh
23. Parvinder Kumar
24. Balvir Chand
25. Surjeet Mainka
26. Nand Lal
27. Rakesh Kumar
Himachal Pradesh
28. Aman Kumar
29. Sandeep Singh Rana
30. Inderjeet
31. Hem Raj
West Bengal
32. Samar Tikadar
33. Khokhan Sikder
Bihar
34. Santosh Kumar Singh
35. Bidya Bhushan Tiwari
36. Adalat Singh
37. Sunil Kumar Kushwaha
38. Dharmendra Kumar
39. Raju Kumar Yadav*
(*DNA report awaited)