The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) should provide precise, verifiable information about the condition of the 39 Indians who were kidnapped by the Islamic State (IS) in Iraq in 2014, a representative of the affected families said on Sunday. Speaking to The Hindu , Gurpinder Kaur, the representative, said the government’s information about the presence of the men in an IS-held prison has turned out to be false as it was reported to be destroyed.
“Sushmaji gave us information that the kidnapped men were in the prison in Badush. She had cited the National Security Adviser of Iraq as the source of this information. I got to know that the prison had been destroyed within hours of our meeting with her on July 16. My information was further confirmed by media reports on Saturday. It proved that the MEA does not take our case seriously and therefore has given us unconfirmed reports,” said Ms. Kaur from Punjab, whose brother is among the kidnapped men who have not been heard since June 2014.
The MEA had called a meeting to brief the family members about a visit that the Minister of State for External Affairs General (retired) V.K. Singh had undertaken in Iraq in search of the men following the liberation of the city of Mosul from the IS. Ms. Kaur’s sources in the region and media reports subsequently confirmed that the prison had long been destroyed and no captives were left there.
Ms. Kaur demanded that the MEA press Iraq harder for finding the 39 men during the visit of Foreign Minister Ibrahim Al-Jaafari from July 24-29. In a press release, the MEA informed that wide-ranging discussions would take place with the Minister.
“We demanded a meeting with the Iraqi Minister also but have not heard anything definite from the Ministry so far,” said Ms. Kaur, expressing surprise over the way the MEA handed out information about the prison without verifying the facts.
“If the media could reach the destroyed prison in Badush then General Singh could have easily verified the condition of the prison before the MEA shared that bit of information with us,” she said.
