Kidnapped Indians located

New Delhi: Iraqi authorities have succeeded in locating the kidnapped Indians according to spokesman of the ministry of foreign affairs, Syed Akbaruddin. He, however, said that there has been no contact with any of the abducted Indians.

Akbaruddin also said that External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj has spoken to Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal and Kerala Chief Minister Oommen Chandy about the situation.

Grief stricken families of the kidnapped Indian’s in Iraq are being flashed with the last images which were sent home by the victims. A resident of Majitha village, Gurpinder Kaur said that her brother Manjinder Singh was lured by a travel agent who first sent him to Dubai but later put him in Iraq.

Manjinder was among the youths from Punjab working with one of the Iraqi companies which were closed down after the area was captured by militants. Kaur said that her brother had called her two days back and said that the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) militants were taking care of them and wanted to help them leave Iraq.

She said she was in touch with the Indian embassy in Baghdad and had also sent a request to External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj seeking assistance in the matter from the government. But she added that the Ministry of External Affairs was yet to provide any information. However, the Union Government had told them that it has sent officials to Iraq for negotiations.

The government has said it is working round the clock to rescue the Indian nationals trapped in Iraq even as it stressed that it does not want to complicate the issue by merely making statements.

Meanwhile, Congress leader Mani Shankar Aiyar took a dig at the government, saying, “The question now is, ‘can the successor government do it?’. I don’t have much faith in these naive people, who have come to office without experience.”

He, however, said he has great faith in the Indian Foreign Service. “I am sure that our diplomats will succeed to a very large measure in protecting Indian communities that are endangered in (Iraq) as a result of the ongoing conflict there,” he said.

 

Haryana Government has set up a control room with telephone number 0172-5059197 in Chandigarh for information on those stranded in Iraq.