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Punjab willing to pay ransom for kidnapped Indians

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New Delhi: Punjab is ready to pay a ‘ransom’ to bring the 40 Indians kidnapped in Iraq back home, said Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal on Thurday.

The chief minister rushed to the Capital on Wednesday after hearing the news and made the offer in his meeting with external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj. He said the state government cannot do anything in this regard except pay for their expenses and pressed the Centre to take immediate diplomatic steps to secure their release.

Haryana chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda has also given a firm assurance that all efforts would be made for safe evacuation of people from Haryana who have been stranded in Iraq.

External Affairs ministry spokesperson Syed Akbaruddin confirmed the kidnapping to reporters. He added that humanitarian agencies and International Red Crescent said the workers employed with Tariq Nur Alhuda company, were taken but there was no information about their location.

Akbaruddin denied receiving “any calls of any nature from anyone who have indicated about ransom or any information that they have taken these people under their control”.

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

While family members of some of the youths from Punjab have urged the Centre to ensure the safe and early return of the Indian nationals from Iraq. The panic-stricken family members of six such youths, living in villages near Amritsar, have appealed to the Centre for help in securing their early return.

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.

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