‘I was saying for three years they are dead’

The lone survivor of the Mosul kidnapping, Harjit Masih, has been consistently maintaining for three years that all the missing Indians had been shot dead by the ISIS. He had managed to flee from ISIS captivity in Iraq in June 2014 following his abduction along with 39 other Indians. Curiously, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swraj, in her statement on Tuesday, described the account as ‘a cock and bull story’. Swaraj insisted that Masih had lied. He had not survived a massacre, as he had claimed, but escaped with a group of Bangladesh colleagues under the assumed name of "Ali" and was found by Indian officials at Erbil. "We asked how he reached Erbil, but he kept saying 'I don't know... just get me out,'" said the minister.

But Masih is adamant: "I had spoken the truth."

A case was also registered against Masih after his return from Iraq and he had to spend six months in jail. “The case was registered against me by the families of the 39 deceased. Even my father died because of this tension,” he adds. He claims he got embroiled in the case because he told the truth about the death of all the 39 Indians in Mosul. “It would have been better if I would have died there. I got stuck in this thing for I told truth to the government about the death of the Indians,” Masih told a TV channel. Sushma said she dismissed his claims ‘‘as he was not willing to tell me how he escaped.”

CONTD. ON P7