Watch Sushma Swaraj's full speech on 39 Indians killed in Iraq: Top updates

After four long years of hope for the families of the Indian construction workers kidnapped by the Islamic State (ISIS) in 2014 from Iraq's city of Mosul, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj on Tuesday told Parliament that all 39 of them had been killed and buried in a mass grave. The revelation set off a row with the Opposition, which accused the Narendra Modi government at the Centre of being insensitive in noting informing the victims' kin first. Swaraj's suo motu statement on the fate of the kidnapped Indian workers confirmed the worst fears of the kidnapped Indians' families after keeping alive hopes of their survival for four years. The revelation would have come as a shock to the families and kin of the 39 deceased workers abducted in Iraq since Swaraj had earlier made statements, including one on July 22, 2017 in the Lok Sabha, that "as per the latest information from multiple third-party sources, they are all safe". The government's treatment of the matter was criticised by the families of the deceased, as well as by the Opposition. The Congress described the Modi government as "heartless" for misleading the country over the deaths of the 39 Indians in Iraq and demanded that Swaraj apologise to the families. The grieving families, for their part, have one question to ask the Modi government: Why did you keep us in the dark for so long? Amid criticism and questions being raised over the government's treatment of the matter, Swaraj held a press conference and defended the Centre's handling of the issue, saying that the government could not declare a person dead without a concrete proof. The external affairs minister added that it was her duty to first inform Parliament about their deaths. Prime Minister Narendra Modi expressed grief over the death of the 39 Indians and said that every citizen was grieving with those who lost their loved ones in Mosul. Minister of State for External Affairs V K Singh said that it might take up to 10 days to bring back the mortal remains of all the 39 Indians killed in Iraq because there were legal processes involved. The bodies of the deceased which were exhumed from a mass grave in Iraq's Badosh would be handed over to their relatives after being brought back to India on a special plane. Remarking on the death of 39 Indians in Iraq, Ministry of External Affairs sources told news agency ANI that no bodies would be coming back to India today. "We will share as and when details are worked out," said that MEA Sources. The victims -- 27 from Punjab, four from Himachal Pradesh, six from Bihar, and two from West Bengal -- were construction workers employed by an Iraqi company in Mosul. The victims were taken hostage when the Islamic State took control of the second-largest city in Iraq. They were trying to leave Mosul when they were abducted. Here are the top 10 developments around the Iraq tragedy that has claimed the lives of 39 Indians abducted by the terrorist organisation ISIS in 2014: 1) Congress wants discussion in RS on killing of 39 Indians: Congress MP Pratap Singh Bajwa on Wednesday gave a notice in the Rajya Sabha for a short-duration discussion on the death of 39 Indians in Iraq's Mosul, news agency ANI reported. 2) Khurshid suggests Modi govt misled nation: The Centre misled the nation regarding the killing of 39 Indians in Iraq's Mosul by the Islamic State, suggested former Union minister and senior Congress leader Salman Khurshid. He blamed the external affairs ministry and said that they took too long to confirm the same. "It is tragic. To an extent what external affairs minister is saying is understandable, what is difficult to understand is inability all these days to have ascertained the truth and to have in sense misled people of India about how terrible the truth was," the former external affairs minister said. 3) Families of the 39 Indians killed in Iraq ask the Modi government some tough questions: As they tried to come to terms with the fate of their loved ones, family members of the 39 Indians massacred years ago in Iraq by ISIS had only one question: Why did the Modi government keep them in the dark for so long? Heart-rending scenes were visible outside the homes of the deceased in Punjab as bereaved family members tried to express their pain after having heard Swaraj's statement on TV that all the 39 Indians in ISIS captivity were dead and their bodies had been recovered. Several relatives of the slain workers said they were not officially informed about their loved ones by any government authority, even as some demanded that the DNA reports be shared with them and the test be conducted once again in India. "What do we say now?" asked a dejected Sarwan, whose 31-year-old brother Nishan was among those killed. "The government kept us in the dark all these years," Sarwan, who belongs to Amritsar, claimed. He agonised that now, after four years, the government was making such a shocking statement. "We met the Union minister (Swaraj) 11 to 12 times and were told that as per their sources, the missing Indians are alive. They have been saying that Harjit Masih, the lone survivor, is a liar," said Sarwan, who last heard his brother's voice over a phone call in June 21, 2014, adding, "If your sources have been saying they were alive and now suddenly what happened. The government should have told us they have no information about missing Indians rather than making false statements." With their hopes dashed all of a sudden after the Modi goverment's statement on Tuesday, anger seethed out. "It is the government's biggest failure. Most of the missing Indians were from Punjab. When the government could save nurses from Kerala, why it completely failed in saving other Indians," he asked. We have been seeking time from the minister for the past several months but we were not given a chance to meet her, he claimed. An inconsolable Gurpinder Kaur, whose 27-year-old younger brother Manjinder Singh was among the missing Indians killed in Iraq, also has similar questions. "Initially, they were saying the Indians are alive. Now, the minister today (Tuesday) made such a statement," Kaur said, her voice choking. She added that they were not even told about Manjinder's fate and instead, they came to know of his demise from the TV. "I am trying to know from the government how all this happened," she said. The family of 46-year-old Gobinder Singh came to know of the shattering news from TV channels as well. Davinder Singh, the deceased's younger brother, said, "We have not yet received any call from the Union ministry about the confirmation of death of 39 Indians." Gobinder Singh was a resident of Murar village in Kapurthala. Davinder Singh added that he requested the government to announce financial help for the deceased's kin and provide a government job to Gobinder Singh's son. He also demanded that the DNA report be shared with them. "The government should share the DNA reports with us and also get the DNA test conducted once again in India so that we can be sure that the body handed over to us is that of my brother," he said. "We just got false assurances from the government," said Dimplejeet Kaur, sister of Dharminder Kumar (27). "All our hopes were dashed today," she said. Kumar went to Iraq to earn for his family in 2014. He was a resident of village Talwandi Jhira in Gurdaspur district. Kamaljit Singh, who hailed from village Chhauni Kalan in Hoshiarpur district, went to Iraq in 2014, his younger brother Parwinder Singh Lucky said. The family approached Swaraj nine times to know about Kamaljit Singh's fate, Lucky added, claiming that "she did not give a suitable reply".

Lucky demanded suitable compensation and a government job for the deceased's wife. In village Jaitpur, Reena Rani, sister-in-law of deceased Gurdeep Singh (39), was grief-stricken. The family demanded compensation and a government job for the deceased's wife. In Rurka Kalan in Jalandhar district, Manjit Kaur, now the widow of Devinder Singh, was inconsolable. "All hopes that Union External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj was giving us in several meetings stand dashed to ground," she said. ALSO READ: 39 Indians killed in Iraq's Mosul; govt didn't listen to survivor in 2015 4) Congress says Sushma Swaraj should apologise to 39 bereaved families: The Congress demanded that External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj apologise to the families of the 39 Indians killed in Iraq for "misleading" them and giving them "false hopes". The Opposition party also demanded that the Modi government compensate the kin of the deceased. Congress spokesperson Randeep Singh Surjewala cited Parliament papers to show how senior Congress leader Ambika Soni had raised this issue with Swaraj in July 2017, asking her "what was her source for being 100 per cent sure that they were alive", since "one day she (Sushma Swaraj) would say that all this is not known and they are all dead..." "What Ambikaji had said in Parliament has come true today," he said. The Congress demanded that each family should be given Rs 10 million (Rs 1 crore) as compensation. Asking why Sushma Swaraj repeatedly misled the nation and the families and gave them "false hopes", Further, Surjewala said that from 2014 until July 2017, the Modi government had seven times said that the 39 Indians were safe, alive, and being provided basic amenities and food. "The 39 Indians were kidnapped in June 2014. The entire world and the neighbouring countries had confirmed that they were not alive. When Indian media went to Mosul in July 2017 and reported that the Indians were not alive, Sushma Swaraj and Modi government rejected it. When an eyewitness came forward said that the ISIS have killed the Indians, they rejected it too," he said, adding, "Sushma Swaraj had said when Iraqi Prime Minister comes to India, the government will confirm it from him, but didn't do anything." He said that the minister should visit all the families and apologise for misleading them and announcing the news on television first.

We want EAM Sushma Swaraj to go & meet the families of the deceased & apologise publicly. She should say that she kept them in the dark and that she had no concrete information: Ambika Soni, Senior Congress leader on 39 Indians killed in Iraq's #Mosul pic.twitter.com/7WBdydMm8m

— ANI (@ANI) March 20, 2018