Kin of 39 Indians missing in Mosul will take DNA tests
Most of them are from Punjab; Iraq seeks samples to match with bodies found in mass graves
NEW DELHI/BATALA: The government is collecting DNA samples from the kin of 39 Indians kidnapped by the Islamic State in Mosul more than three years ago at the suggestion of some parliamentarians and Iraqi authorities as part of a fresh effort to determine their fate.
A letter sent by the external affairs ministry to officials in Punjab, the state to which most of the missing men belonged, said the samples are needed urgently as a team is set to visit Iraq on October 23.
Sources familiar with the developments told Hindustan Times that after numerous mass graves were found in areas of Iraq liberated from the IS, some MPs and politicians had urged external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj to ensure that DNA samples were collected from the relatives of those men to help in the search.
Iraqi authorities too wrote to Indian officials some time ago that DNA samples would help “explore all possibilities” in the search. “Taking these two strands into account, the external affairs ministry decided to request the governments of the states, to which the missing men belonged, to take DNA samples of their relatives,” said a source.
A second source said the latest development “doesn’t mean any finality in our search for the missing Indians”. The source added, “We are still looking for them.”
The government continues to classify the 39 workers kidnapped in June 2014 as “missing”. The government has also taken a position that as long as it doesn’t have conclusive proof they are dead, it would “like to believe they are alive”, sources said. The families of some workers from Punjab were informed by the local administration over phone on Friday evening to visit the nearest civil hospital on Saturday to provide blood samples.
Nine families from Amritsar district, who went to the forensic department of the Government Medical College, were unable to give blood samples as the facility did not have the proper equipment. Officials said they would be recalled once the equipment is available. On Saturday, the Punjab health department collected blood samples from kin of three missing men from Gurdaspur district. P Ashok, the under secretary (states) in the external affairs ministry, had on October 18 directed Gurdaspur’s deputy commissioner to collect the blood samples “at the earliest”.
Senior medical officer Sanjeev Bhalla said after orders were received from the deputy commissioner, three teams went to Tallianwal, Rupowali and Talwandi Jhuran villages to collect blood samples from the relatives of Malkait Singh, Kamaljeet Singh and Dharminder, who are among the missing men.
Kamaljeet’s mother, Mohinder Kaur (62), told HT a health department team came to her home and collected blood samples from her and her husband. “The fresh development has once again built a new hope in our hearts as we have full faith in the words of Sushma Swaraj, who repeatedly assured us that our son is alive and the government will leave no stone unturned for his safe return,” she said.
(With inputs from Surjit Singh in Amritsar)