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39 Indian hostages in Iraq are dead

NEW DELHI: All the 39 Indians abducted by the ISIS terror outfit in Mosul in Iraq three years ago are dead, and their bodies have been recovered, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj said on Tuesday.
While it was not immediately known when the Indians were killed, their bodies were recovered from Badosh - a village in the northwest of Mosul, and their identities established through DNA testing, she said making a suo motu statement in the Rajya Sabha.
The mortal remains, which were exhumed from a mass grave in Badosh, will be brought back to India on a special plane and handed over to their relatives, she said.
"I had said that I would not declare anyone dead without substantive proof... today I have come to fulfil that commitment," she said.
"I had said that closure would 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."
A group of 40 Indian workers, mostly from Punjab, and some Bangladeshi were taken hostage by ISIS when it overran Iraq's second largest city Mosul in 2014.
Of the 40 Indians, one Harjit Masih from Gurdaspur had managed to escape and had claimed to have witnessed the massacre of the others. But the government rejected it.
"His was a cock-and-bull story," Swaraj said adding he had managed to flee the ISIS by faking his identity as a Muslim from Bangladesh.
The Indians were first kept at a textile factory in Mosul, and after Masih escaped, they were moved to a prison in Badosh.
The relentless search for them led to a mass grave in Badosh, where deep penetration radar was used to establish the presence of bodies below a mound. The bodies, which were exhumed with help from Iraqi authorities, had distinctive features like long hair, 'kada', non-Iraqi shoes and IDs.
The bodies were sent to Baghdad for DNA testing.
The government was told on Monday that the DNA of 38 Indians matched with the remains of bodies found. One body was a 70 percent match, she said.
Swaraj said she has previously maintained that the abducted Indians would not be declared dead without substantive proof.
Now, there is proof, she said.
Amid the din, the notices of the no-confidence motion against the government could not be taken up for the third day on Tuesday.
Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan said that the House was not in order; therefore, she could not verify whether the members who have given the notices can go ahead with moving the motion. A bill to ban unregulated chit fund schemes was also introduced amid disruptions.
As soon as the House met again at noon, Mahajan asked ministers to lay papers which were part of the agenda. Soon, AIADMK and TDP members rushed into the Well and started raising slogans in support of their demands. Congress members, who were at their seats, objected to the disruptions, saying this would prevent notices of no trust vote to be taken up.
The Speaker urged the members to maintain order as Swaraj wanted to inform the house about a "serious" issue. At this moment, Congress and Left members started raising slogans such as "no-no", drowning the voice of Swaraj.
As opposition members repeatedly disrupted Sushma's statement, an anguished Speaker wondered whether the members have become "insensitive" and have "lost compassion" towards fellow countrymen.
The Rajya Sabha was adjourned for the day within about 30 minutes since it assembled after Swaraj made a suo motu statement on the Indians killed in Iraq. See also inside

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