The government on Sunday rekindled hopes of families of 39 Indians abducted in Iraq by the ISIS three years ago. External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj, quoting an information received from the Iraqi intelligence sources, said that they may be lodged in a jail in Badush in northwest of Mosul. While Mosul was recently liberated by the Iraqi forces, Badush remains under the ISIS control. She said that the Iraqi foreign minister Ibrahim al-Eshaiker al-Jaafari, who is visiting India on July 24, may come with some more information about the abducted Indians.
Briefing family members of the abducted men, who are mostly from Punjab, Swaraj said that the information was gathered by the Minister of State for External Affairs, VK Singh, who rushed to Erbil in Kurdish-controlled northern Iraq – the closest major city to Mosul. He had held a series of meetings with senior Iraqi officials, including many in Baghdad.
Earlier reports had suggested that ISIS terrorists had lodged the Indian workers at a church in Mosul. But there was no trace of them after the city was liberated by Iraqi forces recently. “We remain engaged at a very senior level with the Iraqi authorities,” External Affairs spokesperson Gopal Baglay said.
VK Singh left only next day when Iraqi Prime Minister Haider Al-Abadi declared victory over the ISIS in Mosul. Since then he has met Kurdish leaders in Erbil and Iraqi leaders, including foreign minister Ibrahim Al-Jaafari, deputy foreign minister Nazar Khairallah, national security advisor Faleh Al-Fayyad and the secretary-general of Iraq’s council of ministers Mahdi Al-Alaq in Baghdad.
Swaraj said that VK Singh was told that Indians were deployed at a hospital construction site and then shifted to a farm. They were then taken to a jail in Badush where fighting between the ISIS and Iraqi forces is still on. “East Mosul has been completely freed from ISIS and now buildings are being sanitised and authorities are not allowing civilians to go there as there may be bombs and other explosives. In West Mosul, fighting is still on,” she said.
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