Baghdad (Iraqinews.com) – Indian Minister of State for External Affairs VK Singh is scheduled to arrive in Iraq Sunday to bring back remains of 38 Indian workers, who were killed by Islamic State (IS) militants in Mosul.

“I am going to Mosul to get mortal remains of 38 Indians,” XNews TV channel quoted Singh as saying, adding that the body of another dead worker will not be reclaimed now as “his case is pending.”

Singh stressed that the Iraqi government will hand over “coffins (of slain workers) to the family members with evidence so that they have no doubts about it.”

He also offered condolences to the families of the deceased.

The Indian Express reported in June 2016, quoting Kurdish officials, that there was no sign of the 39 Indian workers in Iraq.

Last year, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj firmly said that she would not declare the 39 Indian workers, who were kidnapped by Islamic State (IS) militants in Mosul city three years ago, dead without concrete proof or evidence.

The abducted workers, mostly from northern India, had been found buried in a mound of earth near Badush, a village northwest of Mosul, on March 20.

They were employed by a construction company near Mosul when militants overran the Iraqi city and seized wide swaths of territory in 2014. </s> Baghdad (Iraqinews.com) – The Iraqi Health Ministry said on Sunday that it handed over bodies of 38 Indian workers, who were killed by Islamic State (IS) militants in Mosul, to the Indian Embassy in Iraq to be flown home later Sunday, according to Sputnik News.

Indian Ambassador to Iraq Pradeep Singh Rajpurohit said the bodies had been taken to Baghdad International Airport and would be flown back on a military flight, arriving in India on Monday.

Indian Minister of State for External Affairs VK Singh had arrived here earlier in the day to bring back home remains of the 38 Indian workers, who were found buried in a mound of earth near Badush, a village northwest of Mosul, on March 20.

“I am going to Mosul to get mortal remains of 38 Indians,” XNews TV channel quoted Singh as saying, adding that the body of another dead worker will not be reclaimed now as “his case is pending.”

Singh stressed that the Indian government will hand over “coffins (of slain workers) to the family members with evidence so that they have no doubts about it.” He also offered condolences to the families of the deceased.

The Indian Express reported in June 2016, quoting Kurdish officials, that there was no sign of the 39 Indian workers in Iraq.

Last year, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj firmly said that she would not declare the 39 Indian workers, who were kidnapped by Islamic State (IS) militants in Mosul city three years ago, dead without concrete proof or evidence.

The abducted workers, mostly from northern India, had been found buried in a mound of earth near Badush, a village northwest of Mosul, on March 20.

They were employed by a construction company near Mosul when militants overran the Iraqi city and seized wide swaths of territory in 2014. </s> Minister of State for External Affairs VK Singh on Sunday left for Iraq with a C-17 plane to bring back the mortal remains of 39 Indians that were killed by the Islamic State in Mosul.

According to media reports, Singh will visit Iraq in a special IAF aircraft, which will directly land at Amritsar in Punjab on April 2 with the mortal remains, which were exhumed from a mass grave in Badosh.

On March 20, Sushma Swaraj informed the Parliament that the 39 Indians abducted by Islamic State in Mosul in Iraq were dead and their bodies have been recovered.

"There will be legal processes. We are waiting for information from there (Iraq). It may take 8-10 days (to bring back the bodies)," Singh said outside Parliament.

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

For breaking news & Instant updates throughout the day </s> The minister of state for external affairs, general VK Singh (retired) left for Iraq Sunday afternoon to bring back the mortal remains of the 38 Indians killed in Mosul.

On March 20, external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj had told the Rajya Sabha that all the 39 Indians, who were missing in Iraq since 2014, had been killed by the terrorists of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS).

The 39 Indians, mostly natives of Punjab, were working on various projects near Mosul when they were kidnapped. She had added that DNA matches have already been made for 38 bodies.

As the DNA of the last body is still being examined, Singh will be getting back the dead bodies of only 38 people.

"I am going to Mosul to get mortal remains of 38 Indians, we won't get one man's remains as his case is pending. We will handover coffins to the family members with evidence so that they have no doubts about it," ANI quoted Singh as saying on Sunday.

He also expressed his condolences for the death of the 39 Indians.

The minister is expected to return to India with the bodies by late Monday or Tuesday.

"MoS Singh will most probably leave tomorrow (Sunday) for Iraq to bring back mortal remains of these 39 Indians. After coming back, he will first go to Amritsar followed by Patna, Kolkata to hand over bodies to their relatives," a source said Saturday.

According to reports, 40 Indians were taken captives by the ISIS militants in June 2014. While one of them named Harjit Masih managed to escape by posing as a Muslim laborer from Bangladesh, the others were killed.

Swaraj had said that the 39 Indians were taken to Badush and killed. The Iraqi Martyrs Foundation and the Indian Ambassador to Iraq, Pradeep Rajpurohit, had also confirmed the deaths and said that mortal remains of the 39 people had been found at Badush village.

Ever since Swaraj has made the announcement, she has been facing condemnation from the opposition parties in India for giving "false hope" to the families of the victims.

In fact, Congress has also conducted two Twitter polls to get Swaraj branded as a "failure" in her job as the external affairs minister </s> Bodies of 39 Kidnapped Indian Workers Found In Mass Grave In Iraq

For years Harjit Masih has been talking about what happened outside of the Iraqi city of Mosul, the Associated Press reported. He and 39 other Indian men — all construction workers working on the Mosul University campus — had been kidnapped by members of ISIS as the extremist group waged its assault on the city.

The Sikh men were held captive for a handful of days then, Masih told Fountain Ink, they were forced to kneel shoulder to shoulder and shot multiple times at close range. Masih, who was shot in the thigh, was the lone survivor and managed to escape. Eventually, he made his way back to India, where until now the government's highest officials insisted there was no proof all the other prisoners were dead.

"They were killed in front of my eyes," he said from his home in a northern Indian village on Tuesday, the same day India's foreign minister, Sushma Swaraj, told parliament that DNA analysis of remains found in a mass grave near the village of Badush prove that the men who were abducted in 2014 were killed, The Guardian said.

"With full proof I can say these 39 are dead," Swaraj told reporters, adding that the missing workers had been murdered by ISIS, according to The Telegraph.

The AP said the bodies were found under a dirt mound after Iraqi authorities found evidence of the grave last summer using radar equipment. Once the bodies were exhumed, Indian authorities sent DNA samples from relatives of the missing workers. All but one have been identified.

Among the artifacts discovered at the site were ID cards, non-Iraqi shoes and religious bracelets.

In the days leading up to their disappearance, the AP reported many of the men made panicked phone calls to their relatives back in India, pleading for help to escape the ISIS-controlled region.

As a result, as NPR reported, anxious families began swamping government hotlines. "A majority of the Indians kidnapped in Iraq hail from Punjab," Punjab's deputy chief minister Sukhbir Singh Badal told NPR. "We are really worried ... The federal government must take every necessary action to bring [them] back home," he said at the time.

But The Telegraph reported, the Indian government never received any ransom demands or other direct communication from the kidnappers.

Swaraj, has been roundly criticized by members of the opposing party "for giving false hope to the nation." But she defended the decision to wait until this week to declare the men dead, insisting the government needed proof.

"It would have been a sin had we handed over anybody's body claiming it to be those of our people, just for the sake of closing files," she said.

The AP says dozens of mass graves like the one found outside of Badush have been discovered in territories previously held by ISIS. However, the Iraqi government says it doesn't possess the resources or trained personnel to examine all of them.

The Indian government said the identified bodies will be flown home after formalities are completed in Iraq. </s> The US today offered its “deepest condolences” on the death of 39 Indian nationals abducted by ISIS in Iraq, saying it stands with the people of India in condemning the murders. External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj yesterday told Parliament in New Delhi that the 39 Indians abducted in 2014 by the Islamic State (ISIS) terrorists in Mosul city were dead and their bodies had been recovered.

“We offer our deepest condolences. Our thoughts are with the families of the victims,” a State Department spokesperson told PTI responding to a question on the discovery of a mass grave with the bodies of the Indian construction workers. “We stand with the people of India in condemning these murders,” the spokesperson said.

The northern Iraqi city of Mosul has now been liberated from the ISIS. The bodies of Indian workers were found buried near the village of Badsuh, which is in the northwest of Mosul. </s> Minister of State (MoS) for External Affairs VK Singh will bring mortals of 38 Indian on Monday, who were killed in Mosul by the Islamic state. The Indian government will bring back mortal remains of 38 Indian out of 39 as a case is still pending for man’s remains. VK Singh left for Iraq yesterday and expected to return with mortals today, which will be handed over to their families. The minister has confirmed that the families of the deceased have been informed.

MoS VK Singh also informed about their return through a tweet saying “Kuch Zimmedariyo Ka Bojh Kafi Jyada Hota Hai… “ (Some responsibilities are really hard).

Sources have informed that the delegation will first go to Punjab and then visit West Bengal, Himachal Pradesh and Bihar to handover the mortal remains to their relatives. The minister will be flying by a C-17 plane, confirmed a report. Before leaving the country Singh said, “I am going to Mosul to get mortal remains of 38 Indians, we won’t get one man’s remains as his case is pending. We will handover coffins to the family members with evidence so that they have no doubts about it. My deepest condolence to the families of the deceased.”

A few days ago, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj, had informed the Parliament that the 39 Indians, who went missing in Iraq’s Mosul, were killed by the terror outfit IS in 2014. After the announcement, the Opposition and relatives of the deceased had criticised Sushma Swaraj for the way she broke the news in the parliament and keeping the families of deceased in dark for four long years. She had then confirmed that VK Singh will visit Iraq to bring back the mortal remains to the country.

ALSO READ: CBSE official KS Rana suspended in paper leak case for ‘lax’ in supervision at exam centre </s> The 39 missing Indians, who were taken hostage by ISIL in the Iraqi city of Mosul, have been killed, India’s Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj said on Tuesday.

The minister told Rajya Sabha, the upper house of parliament, that the government got confirmation on Monday that the DNA of 38 missing Indians had matched with remains found in a mass grave.

The DNA of a 39th body matched only for 70 percent, the minister said.

The grave was found after Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, also known as ISIS) fighters were driven out of the Iraqi city.

“I have concrete proof that 39 Indians have been killed,” Swaraj said about the Indians who were abducted by ISIL in 2014. “We wanted to give the families closure,” she said.

The physical remains of the Indians will be brought by the government in a special aircraft, the minister told parliament.

One of the workers was able to escape the ISIL custody, the minister said.

India’s foreign ministry spokesperson had confirmed in June 2014 that 40 Indian workers of the Tariq Nur Al Huda company in Mosul were kidnapped when ISIL captured Mosul and large parts of Iraq.

Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi declared “total victory” over ISIL in July last year after nearly three years of war backed by the US-led coalition. </s> Sometime in June 2014, Indian construction worker Harjit Masih lay motionless, playing dead among 39 still warm bodies. Lying beside him were his massacred compatriots. They had all been shot by militants of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) in Mosul, Iraq. Receiving a bullet to his leg, Masih lived to tell the tale.

“I pray and hope that somebody survived, like I did. The chances are bleak. It would be a miracle because they all lay in a pool of blood with nobody responding to my calls,” Masih, then 25, had told the Indian Express newspaper in 2015.

However, for some reason, his version has been rejected by the country’s foreign ministry for nearly four years.

Their remains had been found in a mass grave on the hills outside Badush, a village in northern Iraq. On March 20, though, external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj informed the Indian parliament—and the country—that the 39 abducted Indians are now confirmed dead. “Yesterday, we got information that DNA samples of 38 people have matched and DNA of the 39th person has matched 70%,” Swaraj said. Their remains had been found in a mass grave on the hills outside Badush, a village in northern Iraq.

Swaraj’s statement, coming after years of assurance that they were all most likely alive and well, brings to an abrupt end a traumatic episode for the hapless relatives of the victims.

The construction workers, employees of a Baghdad-based firm, were reportedly abducted in mid-June 2014, after ISIL militants took control of Mosul, Iraq’s second-biggest city. The workers hailed from villages in Punjab, Bihar, West Bengal, and Himachal Pradesh.

Years later, distraught relatives would recount their last phone conversations, mostly on or around June 14, 2014. “Wait for me, I will come back,” Anita Rani recalled her then 39-year-old husband Gurdeep Singh saying.

In the same month, 46 Indian nurses, too, were taken hostage by ISIL from the Iraqi city of Tikrit. They were eventually released after 23 harrowing days and their experience went on to inspire movies in India.

But the group from Mosul went silent.

In the nearly four years since, conflicting stories have floated around about what exactly happened to the construction workers. The Indian government maintained that they were alive and safe, assuring that search operations were underway.

In November 2014, two Bangladeshi men, who reportedly were among the 53 other workers abducted with the Indians, told the TV channel APB Live that the militants armed with guns had first sought to know what faith they followed. They then separated the Indians and Bangladeshis.

Masih told FountainInk in 2015 that the Indians had been made to line up on a hill-top, where the militants shot them from behind. He claimed to have been hit in the right leg, but stayed on the ground till the militants left him for dead. Covered in blood, he eventually managed to get to an Iraqi army checkpoint in Erbil, where he was picked up by the Indian embassy.

Months after his escape and arrival back home, he opened up to the Indian media about the consequences.

Masih’s misery was far from ending. Firstly, his account was rejected by the victims’ relatives as well as foreign minister Swaraj. Eight of her sources, she said, had confirmed that the 39 were alive.

He then alleged that, on his return, Indian officials had held him in custody for months. “I was told there was a threat to my life from the parents of the 39 hostages. I somehow did not understand this,” said Masih. In 2016, he was arrested on charges of human trafficking, based on a complaint by one of the victims’ relatives.

Meanwhile, the wait for the distraught families continued, despite not having heard a word from the missing persons.

Last year, after Mosul was finally liberated from ISIL control, Swaraj said they were likely to be held in a jail in Badush. Minister of state for external affairs VK Singh was sent to look for them. However, an India Today reporter found that the said jail had been destroyed by ISIL years ago, and there were no signs of the Indians.

The Iraqi authorities then reportedly began digging in the hills outside Badush, where ISIL was known to bury its victims. The officials uncovered a mass grave with 39 bodies, later identified as the missing Indian workers.

A call from Swaraj now could have given them some closure. “They found the bodies of men with long black hair and silver bracelets known as karas that are worn by followers of the Sikh religion,” an AP report said on March 20. They had been shot in the head, and it was apparent that the bodies had been buried for a long time, reports said.

Masih now feels “vindicated” by the government’s confirmation of the deaths of his fellow workers, the Indian Express reported. He is out on bail and works as a daily-wage labourer in Punjab’s Gurdaspur district.

For the families of the others, struggling to rebuild their lives after clutching at straws for years, Swaraj’s conclusion is hard to stomach. Many were shocked at the “insensitive” manner in which the government confirmed the deaths, announcing them in parliament instead of notifying the families personally.

Their wait began after that last distraught call from the men in June 2014. A call from Swaraj now could have given them some closure.
Indian Minister of State for External Affairs V.K. Singh travels to Iraq to reclaim the bodies of 38 workers abducted in Mosul by ISIL in 2016 after they were found in a mass grave near Badush last month.