‘Feel betrayed from all sides’ Centre delayed information and gave false hopes to families: Cong
MOURNING MOSUL Grieving families say it was unfair that they got the news from TV and not govt KAPURTHALA/AMRITSAR:
The grieving families of the 39 construction workers, whose bodies were found in Iraq after they were abducted by Islamic State terrorists in Iraq in 2014, said on Tuesday they were given false assurance for years by the Centre, which said that the men were alive.
Gurpinder Kaur, the sister of Punjab resident Manjinder Singh who was killed in Iraq, heard the news on television, and refused to believe that her brother was dead because she said external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj told her that her brother was alive.
“Our fate is like that of the victims of 1984 anti-Sikh violence who are still being deprived of justice,” Gurpinder, who galvanised the families of the missing men in the region, said.
She said it was unfair that they learned about the news from television channels and not the Union government. “The families kept trying to call the office of Sushma Swaraj, but no one picked up the phone,” she alleged.
This proves that the government was not sincere about rescuing the missing men, she said
“I heard this on television. Until the MEA (ministry of external affairs) does not contact me, I will not believe this,” Gurpinder said. “We should have been contacted as soon as they received the information. Had that been done it would not have been such a huge blow. We feel betrayed from all sides.”
Gurpinder said Swaraj “cared only about her reputation”.
“Yes, she was supposed to announce this in Parliament first but he was part of our family,” she said. “She used to say they’re like her children, if that’s the case where’s her sorrow?”
The minister, Gurpinder added, had been saying all along that he was alive and they were tracing the location of the abducted workers.
Swaraj earlier said in the Rajya Sabha that their bodies were recovered from Badosh — a village in the northwest of Mosul — and their identities established through DNA testing although it was not immediately known when the Indians were killed.
The mortal remains, which were exhumed from a mass grave, will be brought back to India on a special plane and handed over to their relatives, Swaraj said.
A group of 40 Indian workers, mostly from Punjab, were taken hostage by the IS when it overran Iraq’s second largest city Mosul in 2014. Of the 40 men, Harjit Masih from Gurdaspur said managed to escape by faking his identity as a Muslim and claimed to have witnessed the massacre of the others. But the government rejected Masih’s version.
The family members of Gobinder Singh of Murar village in Kapurthala were equally distraught when they first heard the news. Amarjeet Kaur, Gobinder’s wife, said her family now wants to see him one last time.
“We were kept in the dark ... The government should hand over the bodies to us as soon as possible,” an inconsolable Amarjeet said.
The sole breadwinner of the family, Gobinder went to work in a construction company in Iraq in 2013 to shore up his domestic finances after taking a loan of ~1.5 lakh.
“I would have never let him go June 15: The Islamic State captures Iraq’s Mosul. Forty Indian construction workers, are captured
November 28: External affairs minister Sushma Swaraj tells Parliament that six different sources confirmed the 39 hostages were alive. She adds the government will not give up the search till concrete proof is available to the contrary
May 15 Harjit Masih — the lone man to escape — says that days after taking them into custody, the IS took the 40 Indians to a hilltop, ordered them to line up, and fired at them. Masih says he was hit in the right leg but managed to escape.
June 21 Swaraj says: "I don’t give false hopes. If I had the confirmation that they were killed, then I would have definitely apologised to the
to Iraq had I known that he will never come back,” Amarjeet said.
Davinder Singh, Gobinder’s brother, said the government had been lying all along and that it failed to take the right action to bring his brother back safely. He said that even Masih claimed that the 39 men were gunned down on June 15, 2014, but the government kept lying.
Swaraj told the families of the workers last year that an Iraqi official, quoting intelligence sources, had told the minister of state for external affairs General (retd) VK Singh that the Indians were made to work at a hospital construction site and then shifted to a farm before they were put in a jail in Badosh.
Davinder said they learnt of Gobinder’s death from a government spokesperson, who called them on Tuesday morning. The spokesman promised to bring the body back to India very soon.
The last four years have been harsh on the family. Amarjeet said her elder son Amandeep Singh, 19, dropped out of school after Class 12 and started working in a factory and that she works a household help to make ends meet. Their younger daughter is studying in a government school.
The family has demanded a government job for Gobinder’s son.
Ranjit Kaur and Balkar Singh, parents of Jatinder Singh and residents of Sialka village in Amritsar, were overcome with grief when they heard the news. families and would have told them that they were killed.”
July 9 Iraqi forces free Mosul from the IS, bringing hope to workers’ families July 16 Swaraj says MoS for external affairs received inputs after a visit to Iraq that the abducted Indians are in a prison in Badush, where fighting is still underway.
July 19 : Iraqi envoy to India, Fakhri H Al Issa, says he has no information about the missing people. “I don’t want to say anything. Sometimes no news is good news. They might be in Badush prison.” He hints that authorities should consider forensic tests on corpses buried in the mass graves discovered in Iraq
July 22 HT publishes a report that says the Badush prison is a desolate structure that has been unoccupied for weeks, if not months. The place is rigged with landmines
“The government kept us in the dark,” Ranjit echoed Amarjeet’s sentiments as she wiped her tears.
Relatives of other men also blamed the Centre for not doing enough.
Seema Devi, the wife of Sonu from Chawinda Devi village, said that the government continued to make promises to them without doing anything concrete.
Swarn Singh, the brother of Nishan Singh of Sangowana village who was also among those killed in Iraq, fumed that if the government had taken concrete steps, the 39 Indians could have been saved.
“My husband went to Iraq in 2013. We are left with nothing now. I have nowhere to go with my kids. We have no male members anymore. My father, fatherin-law and now my husband is dead,” Usha, the widow of Surjit Singh alias Sonu, said.
Usha claimed the family had borrowed money to send Sonu to Iraq. “We spent around ₹2.5 lakh and even mortgaged our house,” she said.
The family has been getting a stipend of ₹20,000 each month from the Punjab government every month, which it fears will stop now. “We have nothing to ask from the government except that it brings back our people so that we can see them one last time,” cried Usha.
Swaraj rejected the allegations by victims’ families that they were given false assurances by the Centre, saying “it wasn’t a falsehood, this was a tireless effort”.
She also said she was dutybound to tell Parliament first about their death before informing their relatives. “I can understand the anger of families, I see it as a natural reaction but I would like to say that I have never kept them in the dark,” she added. October 18: The MEA orders deputy commissioners across states to collect DNA samples from the missing Indians’ families
October 28: The families provide their DNA samples
March 20 Swaraj says 2018
the 39 Indians had been confirmed dead, with their bodies being found.
"We recovered ID cards, long hair, kada and some non-Iraqi footwear,".
A relative of one of the missing men says: “For past four years, Swaraj was telling me that they were alive. I don't know what to believe.”
Swaraj tells Parliament that on
July 27, 2017, she had said she would not declare the men dead till she gets concrete proof. “It will be a great irresponsibility and a sin on part of government. 1 Manjinder Singh
2 Jatinder Singh
3 Harsimranjit Singh 4 Sonu Shira
5 Gurcharan Singh
6 Kawaljit Singh
7 Nishan Singh
8 Harish Kumar
9 Malkit Singh
10 Ranjit Singh
11 Dharminder Kumar 12 Rakesh
13 Gobinder Singh
14 Balwant Rai
15 Kamaljit Singh
16 Gurdeep Singh
17 Kulwinder
18 Roop Lal
19 Surjit Mainka
20 Dawinder Singh
21 Parvinder Kumar 22 Jasvir Singh
23 Sandeep Kumar
24 Pritpal Sharma
25 Aman Kumar
26 Inderjit
27 Sandeep Kumar 28 Hemraj
The Congress on Tuesday criticised the government over “the delay” in announcing the deaths of the 39 Indians who were abducted by terror outfit Islamic State in Iraq in 2014 and giving “false hopes” to their families.
“This is saddening for every Indian. I would ask why was this information delayed by the government. They should tell how it happened, when they died,” Congress leader Shashi Tharoor told mediapersons. “Also, the way government gave high hopes to the families was not right,” he added.
Swaraj told the House that the authorities in Baghdad helped in identifying the bodies and the conformation came on Monday.
Congress leader of opposition in Rajya Sabha, Ghulam Nabi Azad ,demanded that the government give financial assistance to the families as well as jobs.
“The Congress offers condolences to families of those who were killed in Iraq. We are with their families in this painful and sad time,” Azad said.
The government tried to verify facts on the ground and got DNA tests done as it was getting different information from different sources, said minister of state for external affairs VK Singh, who had visited Iraq last year to gather information on the missing men.
“It is the job of the Opposition to take things the wrong way. I do not want to say anything about it,” said Singh.
There was hope but the situation deteriorated and the chances of the men being alive seemed slim, he said, adding the government was firm that it would declare the men dead only after it had full evidence.
“We had expected this, it should have been announced earlier—it was known since much earlier,” Punjab chief minister and senior Congress leader Captain Amarinder Singh said.
A group of 40 Indian workers, most of them from Punjab, were taken hostage by Islamic State when it overran Mosul, Iraq’s second biggest city, in 2014.
FAMILY MEMBERS FUMED THAT IF GOVT HAD TAKEN CONCRETE STEPS THE MISSING 39 INDIANS COULD HAVE BEEN SAVED NEW DELHI/CHANDIGARH: Using Parliament as an excuse for the families of 39 dead Indians having to learn of their heartbreaking loss from TV channels is unpardonable.