Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, August 16

The Cabinet today gave ex-post facto approval for payment of subsistence allowance at Rs 10,000 per month, with effect from October 24, 2019, for family members of eight of the 27 Punjabis killed in Mosul (Iraq) in 2014.

While seven cases relate to the parents of the deceased, one is the wife of a Mosul victim who was not eligible for a job on compassionate grounds under the state policy. The Cabinet also approved the grant of lifetime subsistence allowance to these affected families.

In 2014, 39 Indians were kidnapped and killed by ISIS in Mosul (Iraq). The bodies of the deceased were exhumed and DNA tests were conducted, following which the mortal remains of 27 deceased Indians from Punjab were brought back to Amritsar on April 3, 2018.

The deceased hailed from eight districts — Amritsar, Hoshiarpur, Jalandhar, Ludhiana, Shaheed Bhagat Singh Nagar, Sangrur, Kapurthala and Gurdaspur.

On the directives of the Chief Minister, an ex gratia of Rs 5 lakh each to 26 dependent family members has already been disbursed from the CM’s Relief Fund, and as per records, one victim from Jalandhar had no legal heir.

The state government has also already provided employment to one dependent family member each of the victims, as per their educational qualification and government’s policy.

Seven cases from Amritsar and one from Kapurthala were not covered under the policy, where job on compassionate grounds could not be provided to the family members as the deceased’s wife rejected the job offer and desired that it may be given to her minor son (now 11-12 years).