Outrage over ‘illegal migrants’ remark
Say IS killed them for being Indians, not illegal migrants, responding to Gen Singh’s (retd) comment
AMRITSAR: The families of some of the men from Punjab who were killed by the Islamic State (IS) in Iraq reacted angrily on Tuesday to minister of state for external affairs General VK Singh’s remark and underlined that they were killed for being Indians and not for being illegal migrants.
Soon after 38 Indian workers’ bodies arrived in Amritsar on Monday, the junior foreign minister had said they were illegal migrants and the Indian embassy in the war-torn country had no record of them. The body of the 39th worker wasn’t brought back because there hasn’t been a complete DNA match. The remains were brought nearly four years after they went missing and were identified through DNA and forensic tests.
Forty Indians, most of them from Punjab, were abducted by the IS militants near Mosul in Iraq in June 2014 while one of them, Harjit Masih, managed to escape captivity by posing as a Muslim from Bangladesh. They are believed to have been killed nearly a year ago.
Singh on Monday had said, “It is a fact that they (the workers) went there (Iraq) through an illegal agent”. Referring to a group of 46 nurses from Kerala, who were rescued by India in 2014 from the clutches of IS, the minister said it was possible only because the country had a record of them.
“Should we take it that the government did not acknowledge them as Indians?” Gurpinder Kaur, sister of Manjinder Singh, one of the victims, questioned.
“They were not killed because they were illegal immigrants, but because of their nationality, i.e. Indian. The IS militants could have also killed Bangladesh nationals, but they did not. The IS killed them because they were Indians,” she said.
Gurpinder, who galvanised the families of the missing men in the region, said if the minister was making “such an excuse,” he should declare that those killed in Iraq were not Indians.
She said it was the primary duty of the Indian ambassador in Iraq to immediately inform the Indian government after news broke out that the situation had worsened in Iraq. “Unfortunately, he did not inform (about the workers) for two months,” she alleged.
She said the Indian workers contacted the Indian embassy regularly about their situation from June 4 to June 17 in 2014 but no measure was taken to rescue them.
“Although they went to Iraq illegally, information that they were in trouble was provided to the embassy. I kept contacting the ambassador over the phone from June 6 to June 15 from here 10 times in a day. I spent huge money on the phone calls”.
“Once the embassy had been informed about them, they cannot say that they did not have a record. Should not they have been rescued being Indian nationals in such a situation?” she asked.
Sarwan Singh, the younger brother of Nishan Singh, who was also killed in Iraq, said the minister’s statement was unfortunate.
“On June 1, my brother told me over the phone that they have informed the embassy in Baghdad that they are in trouble and need to be rescued. An official of the embassy uttered rude words. He said, ‘Have you ask us before coming here?’ We in India and they in Iraq kept contacting Indian officials, but the efforts bore no fruits,” the resident of Sangoana village in Amritsar district said.
“No one expects such kind of statements from the minister of state,” he said accusing the government of making false promises and failing to save its citizens. He also accused the central government of discriminating against the residents of Punjab.
“As the majority of the victims are Punjabis and Sikhs, the Centre did not make efforts with dedication. If they were from any other state, they would have been saved like the nurses from Kerala,” he said.
The minister’s statement regarding compensation and job has also irked the families.
Manish Kumar, brother of Harish Kumar, said, the minister should have thought about the pain of the victims’ families before making the comments.
“Both the Centre and state government are treating the victims’ families as footballs,” Gurpinder said. “Had the victims belonged to any other state ..., the Centre would have distributed the government jobs like biscuits,” Sarwan added.
VICTIMS KILLED IN 2014: DEATH CERTIFICATES
The Indian workers kidnapped by the Islamic State (IS) in Iraq were killed in 2014, the death certificates issued by the Iraqi authorities say.
When external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj said last month in the Rajya Sabha that the hostage victims were no more there was no clarity as when they were killed. Besides reports of DNA test and autopsy, two death certificates have been provided to the victims’ families. While one is issued by the Iraqi ministry of health, the other is by the Indian embassy in Baghdad.