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'Can't declare missing Indians dead'

Last Updated 26 July 2017, 20:20 IST
External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj on Wednesday said she will not “commit the sin” of declaring 39 Indians missing in Iraq for the last three years dead without any evidence.
 
In an emotional statement in the Lok Sabha, Swaraj rejected allegations that she had misled the country on the issue and asserted that the government will continue efforts to search for the 39 Indians, mostly from Punjab, who were working in construction company in Mosul in Iraq.
 
“How did I mislead the country? By not declaring them dead,” Swaraj said in a strong counter to those accusing her of failing to provide correct information on the missing Indians.
 
The minister said persons accusing her were free to declare them dead if they did not trust her. “But, if anyone of them comes back (alive), then they should also own up the responsibility (of dealing with such a situation),” she said.
 
“Similarly, the families are also free to carry out the last rituals of the missing but it will be at their own responsibility,” she said counselling patience to the Opposition members who were aggressively pursuing the issue.
 
The minister cited examples of a prisoner of war who had returned from Pakistan last year, 45 years after he was declared dead in the 1971 war and Major Dhan Singh Thapa, who was awarded Param Vir Chakra posthumously post the 1962 war with China, too had come back from the dead to receive the award.
 
Swaraj said during her interaction with Iraqi Foreign Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari here on Monday, she sought an update on the missing Indians backed up by evidence.
 
She said that according to the information that has been received, the group was caught at the Mosul airfield, and taken to a jail, after which they were put to construction work, and then farming, before being taken to Badush jail in 2016. But after that there has been no contact.
 
The minister also said that it was incorrect to presume that missing were at the Badush prison that was destroyed in March.
 
Reacting to reports in the section of the media about destruction of the Badush jail, she said “the pictures do not answer our questions. Our question is were the Indian nationals there in the jail when it was destroyed? If they were there, how many were there? Or were the prisoners shifted elsewhere before the jail was destroyed.”
 
“This file will not close till there is proof that the 39 Indians are dead," she said, adding Vietnam still looks for soldiers who went missing or believed to be killed in the Vietnam war. Even the US still looks for soldiers who went missing in World War II.
 
Earlier, Swaraj refused to make a statement in the Lok Sabha amid din by Congress members who were demanding revocation of the suspension of six of their colleagues. The ruckus in the House led to a brief adjournment and the minister made her statement after the House assembled.

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(Published 26 July 2017, 08:11 IST)

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