Indian minister in Iraq to reclaim bodies of 38 workers killed by IS militants
Bones lie on the ground in an area recently retaken from the Islamic State group near the northern Iraqi town of Hawija (AP)
Baghdad (Iraqinews.com) – Indian Minister of State for External Affairs VK Singh is scheduled to arrive in Iraq Sunday to bring back remains of 38 Indian workers, who were killed by Islamic State (IS) militants in Mosul.
“I am going to Mosul to get mortal remains of 38 Indians,” XNews TV channel quoted Singh as saying, adding that the body of another dead worker will not be reclaimed now as “his case is pending.”
Singh stressed that the Iraqi government will hand over “coffins (of slain workers) to the family members with evidence so that they have no doubts about it.”
He also offered condolences to the families of the deceased.
The Indian Express reported in June 2016, quoting Kurdish officials, that there was no sign of the 39 Indian workers in Iraq.
Last year, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj firmly said that she would not declare the 39 Indian workers, who were kidnapped by Islamic State (IS) militants in Mosul city three years ago, dead without concrete proof or evidence.
The abducted workers, mostly from northern India, had been found buried in a mound of earth near Badush, a village northwest of Mosul, on March 20.
They were employed by a construction company near Mosul when militants overran the Iraqi city and seized wide swaths of territory in 2014.