External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj faced sharp criticism in the Rajya Sabha on Monday, with Congress MPs demanding to know the fate of 39 Indians kidnapped by the Islamic State (IS) in Iraq in 2014.
“The External Affairs Minister has misled Parliament. She has misled the nation. Two years ago, 40 people were abducted by the IS in Iraq. Most of them were from our Punjab. Others were from West Bengal and Himachal Pradesh. Out of them one boy, Harjit Masih, hailing from my district, Gurdaspur, escaped from the IS and said he witnessed that the rest were killed in front of him. But Sushma Swaraj said the government had six major sources who have informed that they are alive. Two years have passed, yet we do not know what happened to them,” Partap Singh Bajwa said. Mr. Bajwa found support from Ambika Soni who rose to support his position.
“I demand that an all-party delegation be sent to Iraq and meet the authorities and bring them back if they are alive and if they are not alive then tell the truth to the families,” Mr. Bajwa said.
The critical observations from the Opposition came after Ms. Swaraj announced that three men from Punjab had been secured in Libya. “We have established contact with the three men from Punjab. They are 900 km away from Tripoli,” she said on her official Twitter handle.
The announcement, however, had the opposite effect as the Opposition highlighted the case of 39 Indians who are missing for the last two years.
