Missing Indians in Iraq: Would be a sin to declare someone dead without evidence, says Sushma Swaraj

Missing Indians in Iraq: External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj said there was no concrete evidence to convey that the 39 Indians missing in Iraq were dead. She was making a statement in Lok Sabha, Wednesday noon.
External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj on Wednesday made statement on the 39 Indians missing in Iraq, amid an uproar in the Lower House of Parliament. “I haven’t misled people (on the question of missing Indians in Iraq). How would it benefit me or the government?” she said. Swaraj said she couldn’t declare the Indians dead until she had concrete evidence of it.
“I don’t have evidence to say they are alive, but I don’t have proof to say they are dead. So we are continuing with the search operation,” she told the House. “Iraq has never said that the 39 Indians missing are dead.” “Why should I believe Harjit Masih’s claims that the 39 Indians are dead?” she asked.
Masih is the only man among the group who escaped from the Islamic State in 2014 and he has been saying that the other men were shot dead. “In every meeting, we have been asking why Harjit Masih would tell a lie and Sushma would say ‘forget about what Harjit says’. She has maintained all along that Harjit is lying. And when we ask that if Harjit is telling a lie, government give us proof of safety of men, the government does not give any proof either,” Devinder Singh, brother of one of the missing man Gobinder Singh, said.
“It’s easier for me to declare them dead because then nobody would question me. They would silently accept it. But I cannot declare somebody dead without proof as it would be a sin to do so,” Swaraj said. Punjab Congress leader Partap Singh Bajwa said the External Affairs minister had “lost all credibility” by saying that the hostages were held in a Badush jail, which was reportedly razed by Islamic State a few months ago.
Swaraj however said that an Iraqi official had told Minister of State for External Affairs General (Retired) VK Singh that the kidnapped Indians were deployed at a hospital construction site and then shifted to a farm before they were put in a jail in Badush.
In 2014, 39 Indian labourers, mostly from Punjab, were taken hostage by Islamic State when it took control over Iraq’s second largest city Mosul.

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