Iraq crisis: Govt wants Par to issue Ramzan appeal to captors

With 41 Indians languishing in captivity in Iraq for the last 45 days, government today suggested that Parliament should issue an appeal to the captors to release them as a "Ramzan gift" before Eid next week.

While making the suggestion in the lok Sabha, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj appeared to send out a message to the Islamist militants holding the hostages by reminding that India had refused to send armed forces to Iraq when the Americans went there over a decade back.

"The holy period of Ramzan is on. The House should appeal to those who have kept these 41 Indians captive to release them before Eid as a special Ramzan gift," she said while replying to a calling attention motion on the situation in Iraq and the Indians stranded there due to the ongoing conflict.

India has had "very good historical relations" with Iraq and "it must be recalled that several years ago, it was this House that had passed a resolution and we did not send our armed forces to Iraq," Swaraj said.

However, the House did not adopt a resolution as Speaker Sumitra Mahajan took up the next item on the agenda immediately after Swaraj ended her reply to the motion raised by Congress member K C Venugopal, RSP's N K Premachandran and AAP's Dharam Vira Gandhi.

Of the 41 held captive, 31 belong to Punjab, four each to Himachal Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh and two to West Bengal, Swaraj said.

"While we don't have any direct contact with them, but according to several sources, we have got to know they are safe and alive, they are being given food," Swaraj said.

To questions about the action plan to get them released, the External Affairs Minister refused to reveal details, saying the fundamental principle of such negotiations was secrecy. "Did you get to know our plan when we got the 46 nurses from Kerala releasedIJ"

like the Kerala government, the Punjab government was also in touch with MEA and making all efforts to get these kidnapped persons released, Swaraj said.

She said as of July 22, over 4,000 Indian nationals have been provided assistance for travelling back to India, including air tickets to 3,113 nationals, since the setting up of the camp offices.

"The safety and security of Indian nationals, especially 41 Indian nationals in captivity in Mosul, is a matter of foremost concern and pre-occupation for us. We are leaving no stone unturned for their safe return," she added.

Of a total of around 22,000 Indians present in Iraq, around 15,000 were in the safe region of Kurdistan which was "a matter of relief", she said.

A total of 3,113 Indians had been given flight tickets by the government to return home from Iraq. These included 803 from Andhra Pradesh-Telangana, 662 from Punjab, 385 from Uttar Pradesh, 294 Kerala, 272 from Rajasthan, 218 from Bihar, 132 West Bengal, Tamil Nadu 23 and Odisha 11, the minister said.

The inter-ministerial 'Standing Group for Repatriation of Indian Nationals from Abroad' has put in place robust contingency plans for safe and expeditious evacuation of Indian nationals from Iraq, if situation so demands.

Moving the calling attention motion, Congress member Venugopal wanted to know whether the captors had demanded some ransom for the release of 41 Indians.

He also said 55,000 Indians were stranded in various parts of Iraq and sought to know what steps were being taken to bring them back.