Baghdad on Monday told New Delhi that it had no information whether the 39 Indians, who had been kidnapped by Islamic State terrorists from Mosul in northern Iraq three years ago, were still alive or not.
External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj hosted Iraqi Foreign Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari, who told journalists that his government was making its best efforts to know what happened to the 39 Indians after they had been kidnapped by the IS militants in June 2014.
“We don't know whether they are dead or alive. We are equally concerned. There is no substantial evidence whether they are alive or not. We are making the best efforts,” Jaafari, who is on his maiden official visit to New Delhi, said after meeting Swaraj.
External Affairs Minister was expected to make a statement in the Lok Sabha at 5 p.m. on Tuesday, but the House got adjourned at 2:30 p.m. due to ruckus by opposition MPs over lynching of people by cow-vigilantes.
His remark came at a time when the BJP-led Government drew flak from the opposition Congress for not being able to get credible information about the Indians missing in Iraq. Swaraj has been particularly targeted by the Congress, which said that it would seek to move a privilege motion against External Affairs Minister for misleading the people, nation and Parliament on the Indian hostages of the IS.
Swaraj came under attack after the latest clue she received about the Indians kidnapped in Iraq three years ago proved to be a red herring. New Delhi was pinning its hope on a report that the 39 Indians, mostly from Punjab, had been lodged in a prison still under control of the terrorist organization at Badush in Nineveh Governorate of the war-ravaged country. The recent media reports, however, made it clear that the jailhouse in Badush, nearly 25 kilometers northwest of Mosul, had already been razed.
Prem Singh Chandumajra, an MP of the BJP's ally Shiromani Akali Dal, too raised the issue in Lok Sabha and demanded that External Affairs Minister should tell the truth about Indians kidnapped in Iraq. He said that Swaraj should make it clear whether it had been a failure of the intelligence agencies, or India's diplomatic relations with Iraq and other countries had failed.
Pratap Singh Bajwa, a Congress member of the Rajya Sabha, recently said that he would move a privilege motion against External Affairs Minister, who, according to him, had lost all credibility after failing to provide correct information to people about Indians kidnapped in Iraq.
V K Singh, Minister of State for External Affairs, visited Iraq, soon after Prime Minister of the West Asian country, Haider al-Abadi, on July 10 announced that Iraqi Army had liberated Mosul from the Islamic State - three years after it had been taken over by the terrorist organization in June 2014. After his return, he and Swaraj on July 16 had a meeting with the members of the families of the 39 kidnapped Indians. Swaraj told journalists after the meeting that Singh had been told by sources during his visits to Iraq that the kidnapped Indians might be in a jail in Badush, where Iraqi Army was still engaged in firefights with the IS terrorists.
The recent media reports from Iraq however made it clear that the Iraqi Army had already taken over Badush from the IS in March itself and the prison had been largely razed due to the war.