They were first abducted and reportedly driven to some unknown destination, butchered and then buried in mass grave by Islamic State terrorists. This information about the heart rending macabre incident was given by the External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj in the Rajya Sabha on March 20 . As many as 40 Indians were abducted by terrorist organization ISIS in June 2014 from Mosul in Iraq but one of them escaped by posing himself as a Muslim from Bangladesh. She said, “I had said that I will not declare anyone dead without substantive proof and today I have come to fulfill that commitment.” Like this, speculation about them of any nature on the contrary, is put to rest.
Unexpectedly, the opposition parties used the occasion to stir a row by accusing the Government of being “insensitive” for not informing the victims’ families first. The sensitivities towards the occasion for national mourning were in utter deficit when the External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj was not allowed to make the statement in the Lok Sabha despite repeated intervention by the Speaker and she had to cut it just when she tried to speak through the din in the House. The Speaker kept on beseeching the members to allow the Minister to make the important but shocking statement but her pleas were ignored. It is shocking and not only unfortunate that even the death of these 39 young men must get twisted and contorted into a political debate. The Congress resorted to slogan shouting and did not allow Sushma Swaraj to make the statement. Avoidable but deliberate political din surrounding the massacre should have been turned instead into the resolve of how to fight to the finish, this challenge to humanity and human civilization known as ISIS.
The Minister clarified that the reason that the victims’ families were not informed before hand was that the Parliament being in session and the House needed to be informed first. She reiterated her stand of not believing anyone dead unless backed by substantive proof and that the “closure would be done with full proof”.
The mortal remains were exhumed from a mass grave in Budush Iraq by Iraqi authorities and their identities established through DNA testing .One Harjit Masih from Punjab’s Gurdaspur who had managed to escape posing himself as a Muslim had claimed to have witnessed the massacre of others. The mortal remains of the victims would be delivered to their immediate family members in India. It may be recalled that ISIS terrorists had picked up Indian and Bangladesh. Bangladeshi nationals had killed all the 39 Indians comprising 27 from Punjab, 4 from Himachal, 6 from Bihar and 2 from West Bengal. Due to the bedlam in Lok Sabha, even 2 minutes silence as a mark of respect towards the dead was not observed while in Rajya Sabha, the members paid their respects to the departed Indians.
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