Harjit Masih was lying, says Swaraj on his escape story

KALA AFGHANA (BATALA)/NEW DELHI: External affairs minister Sushma Swaraj dismissed as a lie on Tuesday a claim by the lone Indian worker who escaped from the Islamic State (IS) that the remaining 39 captives had been shot dead days after being taken hostage.

“He was not willing to tell me how he escaped,” Swaraj said in the Rajya Sabha, adding she had concrete evidence that Harjit Masih had lied.

“Masih had escaped along with Bangladeshis with the help of a caterer using a fake name, Ali. The details were revealed to me by Masih’s employer and the caterer who helped him,” said the minister, who told the House on Tuesday that the government had received confirmation that the 39 captives had died .

According to Masih, 40 Indians including him who had been taken captive by the IS on June 15, 2014 were taken to a hilltop and shot. He said he was hit in the leg and survived by feigning death. Swaraj, however, said Masih had “cooked up” his escape story. But Masih stood his ground on Tuesday. “I think government knew about the deaths, but due to political reasons they did not go public with it,” he said.

The only bread earner in a family of four, Masih is a resident of the village of Kala Afghana in Gurdaspur district of Punjab.

Narrating his tale in 2017, Masih said, “Everything was fine till May of 2014. We enjoyed our work at a factory, though some incidents of firing by IS militants happened in the outer parts of Mosul. But a month later, they entered the factory and kidnapped all of us.”

“We were shifted to a place I could not identify,” he told HT then. “On that fateful day, they forced us to sit on our knees, in a row, and opened fire. I received a shot in my right leg and was covered with bodies. I fell unconscious. Next day, when I regained consciousness, I found all my fellow workers dead.”

“After a few days of walking, I managed to reach a Bangladeshi relief camp and was rushed to hospital. A week later, I returned to India.”

A case was lodged against Masih after families of the missing 39 Indians registered a complaint against him. “Now, since the government has admitted that the men are dead, the case against me should be withdrawn,” he said.