By Prarthana Mitra
External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj confirmed the deaths of 39 Indian hostages in Iraq at the Rajya Sabha today, concluding the four-year search for the missing men.
Shortly after suicide bombings and violent uprisings began in Kurdistan in June 2014, 40 Indian construction workers, mostly from Punjab, were kidnapped during their evacuation from Mosul by ISIS. According to Kurdish intelligence, they were initially held by local Mosul militia associated with ousted dictator Saddam Husains Baath party but then handed over to ISIS for execution.
Of the 40 Indian who were originally abducted, Harjit Masih managed to escape by posing as a Bangladeshi Muslim, Swaraj informed the House today. The rest, she said, were killed and buried in Badush about 10 kilometres west of the University Lake Towers site in Mosuls Jamia district where they were held hostage. Their deaths were corroborated when a deep penetration radar detected a mass grave with exactly 39 bodies with distinctive Indian features. Masih had claimed to have survived the massacre in which the 39 others, before making an escape.
Deep radar penetration brings an end to long search
After perplexing contradictory reports from various unconfirmed sources, the External Affairs Ministry asked for the mortal remains to be exhumed and sent to Baghdad for verification. DNA samples of relatives of the missing were sent to Baghdad from Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, West Bengal and Bihar. Swaraj said postmortem results reveal a match for 38 DNA samples, while DNA of the 39th person has matched 70%.
Road to the Badus mass graves
Kurdish authorities had revealed to The Indian Express in 2014 that they had evidence of mass graves being dug in Badush, which they believed could contain the remains of the Indian workers. However, with the area under the ISIS control, it was difficult to inspect the site or provide photographic evidence.
In June 2016, ahead of the Peshmerga offensive to recapture Mosul from ISIS, highly-placed sources in the Kurdish government monitoring ISISs preparations reported that there was no sign of any Indian or South Asian workers deployed. However, after the victory of the Iraqi forces, the Indian government asked them to locate the 39 missing Indians.
Iraqi Foreign Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari said in July last year that there was no substantial evidence on whether the Indians were alive or dead, but confirmed that their last known location, the prison at Badush, has been destroyed by the ISIS.
In the same month, Swaraj told parliament that there was no evidence to prove that the hostages were killed by the terror group, adding that she would not declare them dead until there was evidence.
“This file will not close till there is proof that the 39 Indians are dead,” Swaraj said.
Swaraj was unwilling to discontinue the search based on Masihs account that the rest of the hostages were executed shortly after being captured and said she has “six other sources” telling her the hostages are still alive. However, evidence later surfaced that at least some of the workers were alive till June 19. Swaraj said her junior minister got information that the abducted Indians were at the Badush prison in Iraq. “This was the last we heard of them,” Swaraj said in 2017.
Opposition leader Sashi Tharoor tweeted asking why the government gave the victims’ families and the country the “false hope” that the 39 men were still alive.
Minister of State for External Affairs V.K. Singh will fly to Iraq to bring back the mortal remains of the victims on a special flight.