Sushma says 39 Indians in Iraq alive but what are her ‘sources’?

Barely 10 days ago, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj had claimed that the 39 Indians missing in Iraq could be in a prison. But with the Iraqi Foreign Minister declaring that the prison she had referred to had long been destroyed, there are questions being raised about Swaraj’s sources.

On Wednesday, she again reiterated that the government does not have any evidence to say that the 39 missing Indians in Iraq are ‘dead’ and denied misleading Parliament or the family members of the construction workers.

The Indian construction workers, she had said earlier, were alive according to reliable information the government had received. However, after the territory held by the Islamic State ( ISIS) was freed by Iraqi army recently, no trace was found of the Indians.

The minister, in her statement, maintained that the government could benefit in no way by misleading the relatives. “I will not commit the sin of declaring them dead without any evidence,” she said. She referred to the version of one Indian who escaped and claimed that the rest of them had been killed. While one person is saying that they have been killed, six others are saying they are alive, she added.

On May 14, 2015, Swaraj, who met the families for the seventh time since abduction of the Indians in June, 2014, from Mosul, reassured the families about the well-being of the nationals on the basis of information received from various sources.

• On September 18, 2015, she told the families that all 39 Indians held hostage in Iraq by Islamic State were “alive”.
• On January 20, 2016, she reiterated that the 39 Indians were still alive, dismissing reports about their deaths and insisted that efforts to trace them were on.
• On March 9, 2016, she repeated that Indians held as captive by terrorists in Iraq were alive and claimed the government was making efforts to bring them back.
• On June 19, 2016, she again said that the 39 Indians were still alive. “When I say they are alive, I have taken on myself a major responsibility of tracing them...Nobody except Harjit Masih said they were killed. I will do injustice to them if I say they have been killed. It is my responsibility to (find them) and I will not shy away from it,” Swaraj said, adding “I do not abandon any Indian national.”
• On October 8, 2016, relatives of 39 Indians “missing” in Iraq met Sushma Swaraj for the 11th time. She said her sources were still insisting that the boys were fine and working at some place there.
• On July 16, 2017, she along with Minister of State (MoS) for Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) MJ Akbar and MoS MEA Gen (Retd) VK Singh, met families of the 39 Indians and claimed they could be in a prison in Badush.
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