External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj announced in the Rajya Sabha on March 20 that 39 Indians, who were believed to have been kidnapped by Islamic State militants in Iraq in 2014, had been confirmed dead. Their bodies were recovered from a mass grave and DNA tests confirmed them to be the construction workers who went missing from Mosul. The government had for years said it would only declare the men dead once it had evidence.

Relatives had last heard from the workers in June 2014; they then reported being held hostage in a basement as fighting raged outside. The government had not accepted the version of the 40th hostage, Harjit Masih, who managed to escape. For family members who lived in hope, the announcement came as a shock.