Iraq has offered no hope for the distraught family members of the 39 Indians who were taken captive in June 2014 by the ISIS in Mosul. Foreign Minister of Iraq, Ibrahim al-Jaafari, arrived in New Delhi on Monday without any news about the missing people. It was expected that the Iraqi Minister might have some news of the Indians who were last traced to Badush jail in Mosul that was liberated recently from the ISIS by the Iraqi forces.
During his meeting with External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj, al-Jaafari told her that there was still no report about these Indians, whether they are dead or alive. However, al-Jaafari said his Government is making all efforts to locate them. The Iraqi Foreign Minister is on a five-day visit to India to hold talks with Sushma and Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan.
“We’re not 100 per cent sure whether they’re alive or not, we don’t know. We are going to do our best, but till now we cannot say anything about their fate. But we will continue to search for them as if they are alive,” al-Jaafari told the media.
He added that the Daesh (ISIS) has circulated a lot of fake news which his Government does not believe in. “Iraqi security forces are very serious about finding all those captured by Daesh whether they are Iraqis or Indians,” al-Jaafari added.
According to Iraqi diplomats, search operations are underway to locate these 39 missing Indians at various locations in and around Mosul. They also assured that there is a high level of coordination between Iraqi and Indian authorities to locate them. The Indian Government had sent two high-level senior officials to Iraq to follow up on this matter. India had also sent Minister of State for MEA, General (Retd) VK Singh, to Iraq to pursue the matter with the Iraqi Government.
On the basis of the input that Singh received in Iraq, Sushma had told the family members of the missing people that they were last located in a prison in Badush and as soon as that area is cleared, further developments would be reported. Sushma had added that al-Jaafari may have some news by the time he visits India.
Meanwhile, during their talks Sushma and al-Jaafari agreed to take steps to boost cooperation in education, trade, energy and healthcare. The volume of bilateral trade between the two countries in 2016-17 was nearly $13 billion. Iraq contributes significantly to India’s energy security and is the second-largest supplier of crude oil to India in 2016-17 with a total volume of over 37 MMT.