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> NEW DELHI: External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj today informed Rajya Sabha that thirty-nine Indians who were kidnapped by the Islamic State in Iraq's Mosul in 2014 are dead. Speaking at the Rajya Sabha she mentioned that their bodies were spotted using deep penetration radar. The bodies were exhumed from mass graves and their identities confirmed by DNA tests. "The bodies were sent to Baghdad for DNA testing. The DNA of 38 Indians have been matched," she said. All of them…

NEW DELHI: External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj today informed Rajya Sabha that thirty-nine Indians who were kidnapped by the Islamic State in Iraq’s Mosul in 2014 are dead.

Speaking at the Rajya Sabha she mentioned that their bodies were spotted using deep penetration radar. The bodies were exhumed from mass graves and their identities confirmed by DNA tests.

 “The bodies were sent to Baghdad for DNA testing. The DNA of 38 Indians have been matched,” she said.

All of them were construction workers, mostly from Punjab, and were employed by an Iraqi company in Mosul. They were taken hostage by Islamic State militants when they took control of the second largest city in Iraq in 2014. The workers were trying to leave Mosul when they were held hostage.

Minister of State for External Affairs V.K. Singh visited Iraq, days after Mosul was liberated by Iraqi forces from the rule of Islamic State.

Congress leader Shashi Tharoor remarked: This is saddening for every Indian, rest I would ask why was this information delayed by the govt, they should tell how it happened, when they died. Also, the way government gave high hopes to the families was not right.” </s> External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj on Tuesday confirmed in Parliament that the 39 Indians who were kidnapped in Iraq’s Mosul in June 2014, have died. The confirmation came after all the 39 bodies matched the DNA of the missing persons. Speaking in the Rajya Sabha, the Foreign Minister said Islamic State (IS) is responsible for the killing and that the maximum of the dead hailed from the state of Punjab. The mortal remains of the deceased will be brought back to India soon.

In the meantime the kin of the deceased expressing their anguish said that the government should have informed them first before making the announcement in Parliament. Sushma Swaraj said that a deep penetration radar confirmed that all the 39 Indians were dead after all bodies were exhumed from the ground. She further said that the DNA samples of 38 people have matched while around 70% DNA accuracy has been achieved for the 39th person. The mortal remains have been sent to Baghdad for the verification of the bodies.

General VK Singh will travel to Iraq to bring back the mortal remains of the Indians killed in Iraq. As planned, the plane carrying mortal remains will first go to Amritsar, then to Patna and then to Kolkata. Earlier in October 2017, DNA samples of relatives were taken to verify the missing people. During the entire process, the governments of four states – Himachal Pradesh, West Bengal, Bihar and Punjab.

Just after the information was delivered by the BJP leader, the opposition attacked the ruling government asking why the information on the dead people was delayed. While speaking to media, Congress leader Shashi Tharoor said, “This is saddening for every Indian, rest I would ask why was this information delayed by the government, they should tell how it happened, when they died. Also, the way government gave high hopes to the families was not right.”

“The country has never seen such a sorry state, this is not proper. You are insensitive for your own people. House is not in order & so no-confidence motion cannot be moved.” said Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan while adjourning the house due to sloganeering by the opposition. </s> Indian Central Industrial Security Force personnel carry the coffin of Indian citizen Hemraj, who was killed in Iraq, at the International Airport in Amritsar on Monday (AFP photo)

AMRITSAR, India — The bodies of 38 Indian construction workers kidnapped and murdered in Iraq by the Daesh terrorist group returned home on Monday four years after their disappearance.

Grieving families — who were told for years by government officials that their loved ones were still alive — waited at an airport in the northwest state of Punjab to receive the coffins from Baghdad.

The victims were mostly from poor families in Punjab and were employed by a construction company in Mosul when they were abducted by extremists.

India’s foreign minister told parliament last month that 39 bodies were unearthed from a mass grave in Badush, a village northwest of Mosul.

DNA testing confirmed the identity of 38 of the corpses. One test was a partial match, with further examination needed, India’s junior foreign minister said on Monday.

The Indians were kidnapped in June 2014 as Daesh overran large swathes of territory in Iraq, including the major northern city of Mosul.

Indian officials for years insisted the abductees were alive until proven otherwise, drawing criticism from relatives who accused the government of keeping them in the dark.

Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj denied the government had given the families false hope. It is not known when the Indian construction workers were killed. </s> All the 39 Indians abducted by Islamic State in Iraq’s Mosul in 2014 were dead, external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj told the Rajya Sabha on Monday, dashing hopes of families that were desperately hoping for their safe return.

The bodies were exhumed from a mass grave and sent to Baghdad for DNA tests, the minister said. “Yesterday we got information that DNA samples of 38 people have matched and DNA of the 39th person has matched 70 per cent,” Swaraj said.

Minister of state for external affairs VK Singh would bring back the mortal remains from Iraq. The plane would first go to Amritsar, then to Patna and then to Kolkata, the minister said.

Harjit Masih, the only Indian to escape the abductors, had claimed that the others in the group were gunned down on June 15, 2014.

The group of 40 men, most of them construction workers, were snatched from war-ravaged Mosul, the northern Iraqi city which was once a stronghold of Islamic State.

Late last year, the Indian government collected DNA samples from the families after several mass graves were found in Mosul that was liberated from IS clutches in July of that year.

The government had classified the men as missing and had said it would continue its search for them till it received concrete proof of their death. </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 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> This article is more than 1 year old

This article is more than 1 year old

India says 39 of its citizens who were kidnapped by Islamic State in Iraq in 2014 have been confirmed dead after remains recovered from a mass grave outside Mosul were DNA tested.

The Indian external affairs minister, Sushma Swaraj, told parliament that tests had shown a match with the construction workers, who disappeared in June 2014 when the city fell to Isis.

“With full proof I can say these 39 are dead,” Swaraj said on Tuesday.

India had maintained that at least some of the hostages could still be alive – contrary to the testimony of one survivor – and had said it would not announce their deaths without concrete evidence.

Swaraj said ID cards, long hair and the kara bracelets traditionally worn by Sikh men were recovered from the grave of the workers, who mostly hailed from Punjab state.

The bodies were found near Badush, a village about six miles from the construction site where the men were snatched. Isis has been accused of killing at least 500 inmates from a prison in the same area in June 2014.

One of the workers, Harjit Masih, managed to escape the massacre, returning to India in 2015 and telling a news website that he and his colleagues were taken to Badush four days after their kidnapping and gunned down.

He claimed to have only been grazed by a bullet and to have escaped to the Kurdish-controlled city of Erbil. He also said the workers had been in phone contact with their families and the Indian embassy in Baghdad in the days before their execution.

But Swaraj has consistently disputed his account of the hostages’ deaths and said on Tuesday that Masih had escaped from Iraq by posing as a Muslim from Bangladesh.

In a press conference later on Tuesday, she defended the delay in confirming the men’s deaths despite mounting evidence they had been executed. “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 Punjab chief minister, Amarinder Singh, tweeted: “Shattered at the heart-wrenching news ... that the 39 Indians missing in Iraq, most of whom were Punjabis, are dead.

“My heart goes out to the families who had been living in hope since their reported abduction by Isis in 2014. Prayers with all of them.”



Shashi Tharoor, a member of the opposition Congress party, accused the government of “giving false hope to the nation” by refusing to confirm the mens’ deaths before this week. “That was disappointing behaviour,” he said. </s> 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.
Indian external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj tells Parliament DNA testing on remains in a mass grave in Iraq confirms 39 Indian nationals believed to have been kidnapped by ISIL have been killed.