India on Monday brought back the mortal remains of the men, working at a construction site in Iraq, who were kidnapped by fighters of the Islamic State in 2014.
The physical remains of 38 men, packed in wooden coffins, were transported on a C17 aircraft from Baghdad, under the supervision of Minister of State for External Affairs General (retired) V.K. Singh.
First stop
Addressing a press conference at the cargo terminal of the Sri Guru Ram Dass Jee International Airport here, the first stop of the mission to return the remains of the men to their families, the Minister said a total of 38 victims were identified and released by the Martyrs Foundation of Iraq.
Tough task
The Foundation has carried out the difficult task of exhumation and identification of the bodies from a mud mound on the outskirts of Mosul.
In a statement made in the Rajya Sabha on March 20, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj announced that the men were killed by militants of the Islamic State.
Remains of the 39th victim, Raju Yadav of Bihar, however, was not sent back as the process of matching his DNA was not yet complete, Mr. Singh said.
“It is a moment of grief for the nation as we have returned with the mortal remains of the loved ones. Iraq continues to be a in a difficult condition. But we are thankful to the Martyrs Foundation which has worked day and night to identify the remains with the help of DNA matching. IED explosions are still common in Mosul, yet they have accomplished the process,” said Mr. Singh in his remarks at the airport.
“It was an arduous process and we took help of the local people and broadcast appeals in local TV and FM channels about the Indians who were missing. Finally someone informed us about the location in Badush where the remains were located with the help of ground-penetrating radar,” Mr Singh said..
Out of the 38 men, 27 were from Punjab, four from Himachal Pradesh, five from Bihar and two from West Bengal. Four ambulances carrying the remains of the men from Himachal Pradesh left by road soon after the C17 aircraft landed. The rest of the coffins will be sent to Patna and Kolkata respectively. The airport witnessed heart-rending scenes as family members broke down on receiving the coffins. Government officials from Punjab and in most instances MPs of various parties accompanied the ambulances that carried the coffins to their respective final destinations.
