New Delhi, Mar 20: External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj on Tuesday declared that 39 Indians, who were missing in Iraq's Mosul since 2014, are dead. ''Out of the 40, who were kidnapped, one person managed to escape, while others were confirmed dead after DNA samples of their relatives matched from the bodies exhumed from a mound, '' EAM Swaraj said in Rajya Sabha.
Speaking in the Upper House, Swaraj said, ''Mortal remains were sent to Baghdad. For verification of bodies, the DNA samples of their relatives were sent there, four state governments - Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, West Bengal and Bihar - were involved in this.''
''Yesterday, we got information that the DNA samples of 38 people have matched and DNA of the 39th person has matched 70 percent,'' Sushma told lawmakers in the Rajya Sabha.
I would like to confirm with a heavy heart that they have been killed by the ISIS there, she said.
The EAM further informed that General VK Singh will now go to Iraq to bring back the mortal remains of Indians killed in Iraq.
''The plane carrying mortal remains will first go to Amritsar, then to Patna and then to Kolkata, '' Swaraj informed.
Swaraj had earlier refused to declare them dead without concrete proof, saying this would be amount to "committing a sin".
"Declaring anyone dead without proof is a sin and I won't commit a sin," Swaraj had said in the Lok Sabha, responding to allegations that she was "misleading the house" on whether the Indians were alive.
Sushma Swaraj had then asserted that it was the government's duty to keep looking for the Indians, given that so far, "there are no bodies, no bloodstains, no list, no ISIS videos."
The group of Indian labourers, mostly from Punjab, was taken hostage by ISIS when it overran Iraq's second largest city Mosul in 2014.
The workers were trying to leave Mosul when they were intercepted and taken hostage by the ISIS fighters.
The Government of India had repeatedly said that all efforts were on to find the Indians and, without any credible information, the workers would be considered alive.
One of the captured Indians, Harjit Masih from Gurdaspur, had managed to escape and had claimed to have witnessed the massacre of the others.
The government in Iraq too had earlier expressed its inability to confirm if Indians taken hostage by the ISIS in Mosul three years ago were alive or dead.
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