Oscillating between hope and despair since past six months or so, the reports of murder of Indian men held captive by the Islamic State of Iraq and levant (ISIS) militants in Iraq has sent a wave of shock and horror in the families of around 15 Punjabis.
Making things worse, the Centre on Friday submitted that it has had no contact with 39 men missing in Iraq since June, but “believes them to be alive”. Union Minister of External Affairs Sushma Swaraj, while speaking in the Parliament, distanced herself from a report that suggested that they had been killed by ISIS militants.
With many of them still pinning hope that their sons, brothers or husbands would return home safely, their families are praying, while, at the same time, blaming the Indian Government for keeping them in the dark about their fate.
India has grown concern about the fate of the construction workers believed to have been kidnapped from the militant-controlled city of Mosul, along with a group of 46 nurses.
While the nurses were freed within a few weeks, the workers’ whereabouts remain unknown, presenting the Government of PM Narendra Modi with its first hostage crisis.
Swaraj told the Parliament that the Government was continuing its efforts to find the men after six sources, including the Red Crescent, had independently told it the men were alive, though they did not have direct contact with them. A Hindi television channel, a day before, had given an account of man “who escaped from the kidnappers”.
He described the militants as having taken the hostages to a hilly region and shooting them dead months earlier.
Among the Punjabis held captive, two are from Hoshiarpur — Kamaljeet Singh from Chawnikalan village, Gurdeep Singh from Jaitpur village, Rakesh Kumar from a village in Jalandhar, Davinder Singh from village Maroof in Kapurthala district, Devinder Singh from Rupowal village, Sarwan Singh from village Mugowana in Amritsar district, Neeraj Sharma from Dhuri village.
The family members have been blaming the authorities concerned for the current state of affairs. They rued that despite giving us assurances after assurances; the Government was doing nothing but coming up with more assurances.
lashing out, Congress Deputy leader in the lok Sabha Capt Amarinder Singh asked the Centre to clear air about the plight of 39 Indians held hostage by the ISIS in the backdrop of disturbing media reports saying they were allegedly killed in the month of June itself.
Expressing grave concern over the reports quoting some secondary eyewitnesses about the hostages having allegedly been killed, Capt Amarinder said: “It is too painful and traumatic for the victims’ families to come across such reports.”