External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj informed the Rajya Sabha on Thursday that she had no “concrete proof” on whether the 39 Indians, abducted in Iraq three years ago, were “dead or alive.”
The Minister’s response came amid attacks from the Opposition that she was misleading Parliament, asking her to disclose the “sources” who had been telling her that the Indians were alive.
High-level sources
Ms Swaraj retorted that the sources who gave the government the confidence of not abandoning the search for the abducted Indians include a “head of state and a foreign minister of another country.”
She, however, refused to disclose the identity of the sources, citing “diplomatic confidentiality.”
Ms Swaraj also said the Congress was using the issue as a political agenda and there was a difference between “information and proof.”
Making a statement in response to a Zero Hour mention on the issue raised by Pratap Singh Bajwa (Congress) on July 19, Ms. Swaraj vehemently denied that she had ever misled Parliament or the country on the fate of the abducted persons.
‘Will be a sin’
“In absence of concrete proof, it is a sin at personal level and irresponsible act on the part of the government to declare them dead. What should I apologise for? That I did not declare them dead?” Ms Swaraj asked.
Mr. Bajwa said the government has been changing the goal posts all through and the Minister had to give “one proof” for believing they are alive.
“We are not sitting idle. All countries which can help have been asked for help. Why will I mislead? What will I gain, what will my government gain by misleading?” Ms Swaraj asked.
Escapee’s claim
Mr. Bajwa countered Ms. Swaraj's assertion, asking what would Harjit Masih, one of the abducted Indians who had escaped, gain by claiming that he had witnessed the 39 persons being shot dead.
Responding to this, the Minister said she was the first to speak to Mr. Masih after he called up but he did not provide a convincing reply how he was able to escape from the ISIS. Also, the family of one of the abducted persons had received a call from the captors, saying the captive was alive, she said.
“I had asked for permission of the House (to continue efforts to locate them) and had not just taken it in confidence,” Ms. Swaraj said, claiming the members had given their consent by thumping desks or nodding.
The Minister said her deputy Gen. (Retd.) V.K. Singh had travelled to Iraq on the very next day after Mosul was declared free of the IS on July 9.
Senior Iraqi officials told him that they had information of the Indians having been picked up from Mosul airfield three years ago. After having been held in captivity for some time, they were made to work in a hospital and then as agriculture labour.
Thereafter in early 2016, they were shifted to the prison at Badush, some 30 km from Mosul town, the Minister said.
“That is the last known location,” she said, adding she had informed the families of the victims about the same.
Mr. Bajwa asked why the government was not believing the version of Harjit Masih and sought to know the five or six sources the Minister had repeatedly quoted in her statement.
He said upon the fall of Mosul, it was said that the Indians were in the prison at Badush but that jail was demolished three months back.
“They have misled the Parliament. They have misled the country,” he said. “Give one proof [of] how do you say they are alive.” He said an all-party delegation should be sent to Iraq to get a firsthand account.