I have concrete evidence of killings of 39 Indian in Iraq: Sushma Swaraj

The statement was made by Sushma Swaraj in the Parliament

We all know that in the month of June 2014, 39 Indians were captured as hostage by ISIS in Iraq.This topic was discussed many times in the House. The last discussion was held on July 27 in the Rajya Sabha. On July 27, 2017, Hon’ble Bajwa Ji had raised this topic in the Zero Hour and the next day I came to the house to give my reply.

I would like to read what I had said at that time. I had said, “Till the time I have no proof that they have been killed, I will not declare them dead; I will not declare them dead.” Deputy Chairman Mr Kurien was presiding on that day. Making an announcement without any evidence that ‘He died’ is a sin at individual level and irresponsible at the level of the government, hence neither will I commit this sin nor will I act irresponsibly. But the day I find any concrete evidence and if the Parliament is in session on that day, then I will request to stop its proceedings and inform the country and if the parliament is not in session then I will inform the whole country on twitter within 10 minutes.

Today I have come here to fulfil that promise of mine. Today I have concrete evidence for both the things. First, story of Harjit Masih was not true, and the other, I am saying this with a heavy heart, that those missing people have been killed. And I would like to put the evidences of both the things in front of you. 

The proof that Harjit Masih was not speaking the truth is that the last time when General VK Singh went to find them in Iraq, I told him that first of all he must go to Mosul and meet the owner of the company, as he might get some important clues there. He started his journey from Mosul only and when he spoke to the owner of the company, the owner told the whole story that 40 Indians and some Bangladeshi people who used to work for him. The owner said that when ISIS started occupying Mosul, then he asked all the people who used to work for him to leave. 

So first all the Iraqi workers left then workers from other countries also left but these Indians and Bangladeshi workers did not leave. So he called a caterer who used to feed them and one day that caterer came and said that once when Bangladeshi and Indian workers were coming to eat, some ISIS people saw them and asked, who are you people? They told them that we are Bangladeshi and they are Indians. So ISIS people said that you all will not stay here. There was a textile factory which ISIS had occupied, they asked to take the workers there, and they took them all to that textile factory. There the ISIS people said to keep the Bangladeshi and Indian workers separate from each other so both were kept separately there. 

One day ISIS people asked to drop the Bangladesh workers to Erbil. Caterer told that they gave this responsibility to me so he got ready to take them in his van to drop them in Erbil. I don’t know what Harjit did that night, he may know better, I’ll tell you what my guess is. He asked the owner of the company that the owner must give Harjit a Muslim name and send him with the Bangladeshi workers. Owner of the company says that he received a call from a person and the caller says I am Ali, to which the owner says that there is no one named Ali who works for him. To which the caller says, I am the one who has to go with the Bangladeshi workers, so the owner of the company says, Ok, Ok. So this caterer is saying that along with the Bangladeshi workers he had dropped Harjit Masih as Ali in Erbil. 

Chairman Sir, first time when I spoke with Harjit he had called me from the Erbil only. So when I asked him how did you reach here? He was talking in Punjabi, he said I don’t know. So I said, how is it possible that you don’t know. You are calling me from Erbil, at least tell me how did you reach there? He again said I don’t know but you please rescue me. I said to him that son, we will definitely rescue you but tell me how did you reach there? No Ma’am, I don’t know. I asked him three to four times and every time he said, I don’t know. 

Later he concocted the story that all of them were taken to jungle and made to stand in a queue. 39 people were shot in the head and only I was shot in the leg so only I could escape and rest of them were killed. This was all a cock and bull story and his story was not true. He had escaped earlier as Ali with the Bangladeshis in the caterer’s van. So this was all about Harjit Masih.

The caterer further told that next day when ISIS people found out that all the 40 Indians are not there, as they used to do a headcount every night, so they decided that keeping Indians there was not okay and they asked one of the ISIS commanders to take them to Badush. Owner of the company says that he does not know what happened after that as there was a prison in Badush which was under the control of ISIS. He said he had no contact with them after that and he did not know whether the ISIS people have kept them in the prison or they killed them. 

Taking a cue from that all three of them, General V K Singh, our Ambassador Pradeep Rajpurohit and the official from the Iraq government left for Badush because the last information was that they were taken to Badush. When these people were searching in Badush then they met a person who told them that there is a mound nearby andit seems a lot of people were buried there together, you must go there and check.

Now when these people went to that mound, not much could be made out from the outside so they contacted the Iraqi authorities that they need a Deep Penetration Radar so that they can check what is lying underneath that mound. Deep Penetration Radar revealed that there are dead bodies underneath the mound. So General Singh asked Iraqi authorities to dig up that mound and exhume the bodies. Whole mound was dug up and the dead bodies were exhumed and from those dead bodies we got two things, one, they had long hair and another was a Kada and along with that some ID cards were also found and some shoes which were not from Iraq. So the bodies were exhumed and all the mortal remains which were found from that mound were sent to Baghdad.

Excerpts from an authorised English translation of a Hindi statement made by External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj in Parliament, March 21