On Wednesday while addressing the Lok Sabha session, Foreign Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj said that there is no proof that the 39 missing Indians in Iraq are dead and therefore it will be a sin to assume them dead.
The 39 Indians missing in Iraq were kidnapped in Mosul three years ago. The Ministry got the latest updates regarding the Indians on July 9 when Iraq declared that Mosul was free. Immediately Minister of State of External Affairs VK Singh flew to Mosul and stayed there for four days enquiring about the missing Indians. Based on the search done by Singh she said that the Indians may have been lodged in a jail located in northwest Mosul.
Swaraj further added that on July 24 Iraq Iraq too said it has no “substantial evidence” on whether the 39 Indians are alive or dead. It did confirm though that the prison at Badush, the Indians’ last known location, has been demolished by terror group ISIS. She said that the ministry does not have any proof of the missing Indians to be alive, however, they didn’t get any corpses, blood trail or any list published by the ISIS either which could have confirmed that they are dead.
The Foreign Affairs minister reminding the case of the Vietnam War said that the US still considers its armed forces personnel missing, who haven’t been found since the Vietnam war ended back in the 1970s. She added that the government is putting in all the efforts and will do every thing possible to find the missing Indians.
“It is very easy for me to say that the 39 Indians are dead. No one including their families will ask me anything after that,” Swaraj said, but she added that it will be a sin to assume the missing Indians dead without getting any proof of their death, she will not commit this sin and will continue the search.