Sushma Swaraj confirms deaths of 39 Indians missing in Iraq

Both Houses of Parliament could transact little business due to continued disruptions when External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj confirmed that 39 Indians missing in Iraq had been killed and their bodies recovered. The Lok Sabha could not take up the no-confidence motion against the Narendra Modi government moved by YSR Congress Party and Telugu Desam Party. Speaker Sumitra Mahajan said the House was not in order. The government also accused the Congress and other Opposition parties of insensitivity as it kept protesting when Swaraj was making a statement. While she could not make an elaborate statement in the Lok Sabha, she made a detailed one in the Rajya Sabha and later addressed a press conference on the issue. She said all the 39 Indians abducted by the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) in Mosul (Iraq) three years ago were dead and their bodies had been recovered. While it was not immediately known when the Indians were killed, their bodies were recovered from Badosh, a village northwest of Mosul, and their identities established through DNA testing, Swaraj said. “I had said that I will not declare anyone dead without substantive proof... today I have come to fulfil that commitment. ...

I had said that closure will be done with full proof. And when we will, with a heavy heart, give the mortal remains to their kin, it will be a kind of closure.” Minister of State for External Affairs V K Singh would travel to Iraq to bring back the mortal remains on a special plane, she said. It will stop in Amritsar where 31 bodies of victims from Punjab and four from Himachal Pradesh will be handed over to relatives. It will then travel to Patna and then to Kolkata. Expressing grief over the deaths, Leader of the Opposition Ghulam Nabi Azad sought to remind the government it had “assured us last year that the Indians were alive”. The senior Congress leader said the government was not making efforts to ensure the House ran, and discussed the Budget, the Punjab National Bank fraud case, special category status to Andhra Pradesh and formation of the Cauvery management Board. While the rest of the Opposition wanted Azad to make a statement, members belonging to the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam and the AIADMK and those from the Andhra Pradesh parties, entered the Well of the House. In the din, Azad said 10 Opposition parties, including the Congress, Trinamool Congress, Samajwadi Party, Bahujan Samaj Party, Nationalist Congress Party and the Left parties, had met Tuesday morning and agreed that the House should function. Swaraj said there was a 100 per cent DNA match for 38 victims and a 70 per cent match in the case of one of bodies found in Iraq. Later, the Congress and other parties said the government has misled the family members of the 39 Indians with false hope when it was clear that they have been killed. The Opposition also said the government should have informed the family members, before informing Parliament. Rajya Sabha Chairman M Venkaiah Naidu, upset over the continued disruptions, cancelled a dinner he had planned to host for Rajya Sabha members on Wednesday. Last week, he had refused to inaugurate a badminton tournament for MPs.