Masih sticks to his story
Harjit Masih, 29, the lone survivor who managed to flee from IS captivity in 2014, said: “I have been saying all along that all 39 Indians have been killed.”
BATALA: Harjit Masih, 29, the lone survivor who managed to flee from IS captivity in Iraq in June 2014, following his abduction along with 39 other Indian workers there, said on Tuesday, “I have been saying all along that all 39 Indians were killed. I spoke the truth.”
Masih, resident of Kala Afghana village in Gurdaspur district, was reacting after external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj informed Parliament that the men had indeed been killed and their bodies have been recovered. He said, “They were shot in front of my eyes. I wonder why the government did not accept what I said.” Masih said the Indians were working at a factory when they were kidnapped and then kept hostage for some days. “On the fateful day, we were made to sit on our knees and the terrorists opened fire. I was fortunate to have survived though a bullet hit my thigh.”
On Swaraj’s statement that he had escaped from Iraq along with some Bangladeshis using a fake name before the claimed shooting, Masih said: “I don’t want to get into in any sort of mess-up with a minister. The important thing is that what I said in 2014 has been confirmed by the government. After reaching India in 2014, I had narrated the incident to various agencies, who kept me in Delhi and other places for over a year. The government told me not to tell anyone that they (other Indians) were dead. I was told to say I did not know about them and that I had run away (from Iraq). If I had indeed escaped from the factory before, how did I come to know that others were dead?”
“Later, when I narrated the entire incident to the media, I was implicated in false case of human trafficking. I am a a daily-wage labourer and the sole breadwinner of my family. I don’t want to get into trouble with the government,” he added. In early 2016, he and a cousin, Rajbir Singh, were arrested by the Batala police on charges of human trafficking. “I spent six months in jail and now I am out on bail,” he said. He also demanded a job from the government. “My financial condition is bad,” he said. PTI INPUTS