39 Indians dead: Under fire, Sushma lashes out; Congress tells her to say sorry to families

Even as External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj failed to come up with concrete details of the killing of 39 Indians who had been held captive by Islamic State in Iraq, she singled out Congress at a press conference, for disrupting the Lok Sabha when she was making the announcement on the deaths in the house on Tuesday. “Congress crossed all limits of political decency today,” Swaraj said.

Earlier in the day, Congress accused the government of keeping the families of the deceased Indians in dark for three years.

“How could we do politics over deaths of Indians?” Swaraj questioned.

The minister informed media persons that the Indian authorities had set the ball rolling on finding the ‘missing’ Indians in July last year, when Mosul was liberated by Iraqi forces after three years of occupation by Islamic State. “General VK Singh [MoS, External Affairs] flew to Mosul on July 10, the day Mosul was liberated, and touched base with Iraqi authorities, who had earlier got our government in touch with a non-profit working in Iraq,” Swaraj said.

“Once in Iraq, Singh came to know about a mound in Badoosh, which apparently had corpses in it,” she went on. According to Swaraj, the presence of dead bodies was confirmed after India requested Iraq to conduct a deep penetration radar in the mound, after which the bodies were exhumed and transported to Baghdad. She said that DNA samples of family members of missing Indians were flown to Baghdad thereafter.

“On Monday night, our ambassador in Iraq informed us that 38 bodies found in that mound had been identified. That’s when I decided to make the news public,” Swaraj said.

The 40 workers were kidnapped by ISIS on June 11, 2014, when they were trying to flee Mosul after the terrorist group was overrunning the city. Swaraj said that she didn’t know when the Indians were killed, or how they were killed.

However, fingers are being raised by family members of the deceased persons who are claiming that the government had been maintaining that the kidnapped Indians were alive all along for the last three years.

“For the past four years, External Affairs Minister was telling me that they were alive. I don’t know what to believe anymore. I am waiting to speak with her as no information was given to us. We heard her statement she made in Parliament,” Gurpinder Kaur, the sister of one of the 39 dead Indians, Manjinder Singh, has claimed.

A lone survivor who managed to escape Mosul during evacuation efforts by Iraqi authorities, Harjit Masih, had informed the Indian government back in 2014 that he had witnessed the execution of his 39 Indian counterparts. Masih was taken in “protective custody” and his version of events were denied by India.

Swaraj said at the press conference that the government couldn’t have relied on an individual, as he didn’t have any proof to back his claims. “Masih is an individual. We are a government. How could have we trusted him and announced the deaths. It would have been irresponsible. We were waiting for evidence. It is a hallmark of a credible government,” Swaraj said.

She also said that her stand had remained consistent all along. “In the two statements that I had made in Parliament, on November 24, 2014 and July 27, 2017, I had maintained that we didn’t have evidence of them being dead or alive,” Swaraj said. “But I did say that if anyone comes with proof, I would accept that they were dead,” she added.

Sushma should apologise to families for 'misleading' them: Congress

The opposition leaders aren’t, however, buying Swaraj’s statements. Chairman of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on External Affairs Shashi Tharoor said that Masih’s story should have been believed. “The government didn’t handle the issue well. A person from the same group came back with sad news that these people had been shot dead. The government should have given false hopes to anyone,” Tharoor told news agency ANI.

Punjab’s Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh also accused the government of keeping the nation in “dark” over the deaths of Indians.

Congress spokesperson Randeep Singh Surjewala demanded that Swaraj apologise to families of the 39 Indians, for "misleading" them and giving "false hopes", and also demanded that the Narendra Modi government compensate them with ₹1 crore each.

Asking why Sushma Swaraj repeatedly misled the nation and the families and gave them "false hopes", Surjewala said that the government had—seven times from 2014 till July 2017—said these Indians were safe, alive and being provided basic amenities and food. He said the minister should visit all the families and apologise for misleading them and announcing the news on television first.

Surjewala also asked what was the need to give the statement in a hurry—even when the issue of no-confidence came up—asking if it was because the Iraq's Martyrs Foundation was going to hold a press conference in the afternoon to reveal the truth about the killing of 39 Indians.

With IANS inputs.