‘Declaring ISIS hostages dead without proof is sin’
Sushma: Will continue search for 39 Indians
There is no concrete evidence to conclude that the 39 Indians abducted from Mosul, Iraq, three years ago have been killed, external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj said on Wednesday in Parliament, asserting that she “will not commit the sin” of declaring them dead without any proof. Ms Swaraj said one person, Harjit Masih, who was also abducted along with the 39 others but had managed to escape, had said the captives were
We will continue our efforts to trace them till... we get evidence that they are dead, as declaring them dead without proof will be a sin...
killed. However, six sources, including the President of a Gulf country and a foreign minister of another West Asian country, had told the government that they are alive, Ms Swaraj said.
“There were contradictions in Masih’s version. That is why I told our embassy to find out details about them,” she said. “This file will not close till there is proof that the 39 Indians are dead,” she added, pointing out that countries such as Vietnam and the US still look for their soldiers who went missing in wars several decades ago. Ms Swaraj also said that she had told visiting Iraqi foreign minister
Continued from Page 1 Ibrahim al-Jaafari that she would not accept anything on the issue without “proof ”, and requested him to continue the search for them.
The Indian labourers were taken hostage by ISIS when it overran the Iraqi city of Mosul in 2014. They were trying to leave the besieged city when they were abducted.
India had requested Iraq to locate the missing Indians after Iraqi forces recaptured Mosul from ISIS this month.
In a strong statement in the Lok Sabha, Ms Swaraj rejected allegations that she misled the country on the issue and said that the government would continue its efforts to trace the captives until it gets evidence of their death.
“We will continue our efforts to trace them till the time we get evidence that they are dead, as declaring them dead without proof will be a sin and I will not commit that sin,” Ms Swaraj said. The external affairs minister also cited an example of when the Congress government declaring a soldier as a martyr in the 1971 war, and after 45 years, it was found that he was in a jail in Pakistan.
“If someone feels they are dead, then you are free to go to the families. But, if anyone of them (hostages) comes back, then it will be your responsibility. Similarly, their families are free to carry out ardas (prayers by families after the death of a person), but it will be their responsibility if someone comes back,” Ms Swaraj said.