A Mumbai youth, who left home six months ago to fight alongside the terror outfit Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), returned to the country on Friday and was arrested after being grilled by central security agencies alongwith NIA on charges under Section 125 of the IPC, (waging war against any Asiatic country which has friendly ties with India) entailing maximum punishment of life imprisonment. He will be produced before a designated NIA court on Saturday, official sources confirmed.
It has been five months since the ISIS took 39 Indian workers as hostage in Iraq and no one knows when they will come back.
In Parliament, the Government on Friday cited six sources to deny the reports that the hostages had been killed. It, however, admitted lack of any direct contact with them and said there is no "concrete evidence" of them being dead or alive.
While the nation was still clueless about these hapless hostages, in May this year, four youths from Kalyan town — Arif Majeed, Shaheen Tanki, Fahad Sheikh and Aman Tandel — were reported to have left India to visit holy places in the Middle East, but disappeared thereafter. They were later suspected to have joined the terror group ISIS.
Meanwhile, in both the Houses of Parliament, members quoted media reports mentioning that two Bangladesh nationals — who managed to escape from ISIS custody — informed the Government that all the hostages were killed in a jungle on June 15.
Taking cognisance of this version, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj said the media reports were based on statements of the Bangladeshi nationals who quoted an Indian, Harjit Singh, an escapee who claimed that all his fellow countrymen had been killed.
Assuring Parliament that Harjit was in safe Government protection, she said the Indian officials, however, could not corroborate his statement. Meanwhile, six sources maintained that the hostages were alive and given this situation, the Government decided to believe the sources, the Minister said.
"On one hand, there is a source about which there is no confirmation while on the other hand, six different sources have informed the Government that they (hostages) have not been killed," she said.
Posing a question to the Rajya Sabha members, Swaraj asked whether the Government should go by what one person was saying or believe six other sources. A responsible Government would not like to give up the search till there is any concrete proof, she added.
Refraining from disclosing the identity of the six sources as it would jeopardise their security, the Minister informed Parliament that two officers, who can speak Arabic, were recently deployed for securing the men’s release besides a senior IFS officer who was already on the job for the past five months.
Elaborating upon her reasons to go with the sources, Swaraj said she had received written communication from them claiming that the abducted Indians were not killed.
A media report cited statements of Shafi and Hassan, the two Bangladeshis, who claimed to have been released by their ISIS captors after segregating them from Indians, to claim that 39 Indians had been killed. They based their claim on what they had been told by Harjit.
She also informed Parliament that the Government was working in "adverse circumstances" for ensuring their release and utilising all resources in the Gulf, including establishing contact with heads of states in the area.
Raising the issue in the Rajya Sabha, Anand Sharma (Congress) said the Government had made a statement in the House on June 22 claiming that contact had been established with the abducted people, seven days after the alleged killing.
He charged that "both the Houses have been misled by the government. If this was known, then why this was not told in the House and why assurances were given to the families of those abducted... How did this happenIJ Was the government really in the dark and kept sitting and giving assurancesIJ
NDA ally Shiromani Akali Dal(SAD) also wanted clarity on the issue. BSP chief Mayawati, JD(U) leader Sharad Yadav, CPI(M)'s P Rajeeve, TMC member Derek O'Obrien, Samajwadi Party member Jaya Bachchan were among others who expressed concern over the media report. Bachchan also sought to know if the government was in regular touch with the families of the hostages. Swaraj said she had met the families at least five times in the last few months.
Expressing hope that the Indians are alive, SP leader in the house Ram Gopal Yadav took a jibe at Prime Minister Narendra Modi's foreign visits and said "he is moving around the world as if on a victory path and seems to have left Ashwamedha's horse, while soldiers were being killed along the line of Control. There is despair amongst us and our borders are not safe. There is concern in the whole nation." K C Tyagi (JD-U) termed the incident as a diplomatic "failure" of the government and said, "India has no friend left in the West Asia.
In the lok Sabha, Jyotiraditya Scindia(Congress) charged the External Affairs Minister of "misleading" the House and claimed that the government had failed to protect the workers. "If the reports about their being killed long back are correct, then the government has misled the people and Parliament," he said, demanding a "full and transparent reply."