Baghdad (Iraqinews.com) – Indian Minister of State for External Affairs VK Singh is scheduled to arrive in Iraq Sunday to bring back remains of 38 Indian workers, who were killed by Islamic State (IS) militants in Mosul.

“I am going to Mosul to get mortal remains of 38 Indians,” XNews TV channel quoted Singh as saying, adding that the body of another dead worker will not be reclaimed now as “his case is pending.”

Singh stressed that the Iraqi government will hand over “coffins (of slain workers) to the family members with evidence so that they have no doubts about it.”

He also offered condolences to the families of the deceased.

The Indian Express reported in June 2016, quoting Kurdish officials, that there was no sign of the 39 Indian workers in Iraq.

Last year, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj firmly said that she would not declare the 39 Indian workers, who were kidnapped by Islamic State (IS) militants in Mosul city three years ago, dead without concrete proof or evidence.

The abducted workers, mostly from northern India, had been found buried in a mound of earth near Badush, a village northwest of Mosul, on March 20.

They were employed by a construction company near Mosul when militants overran the Iraqi city and seized wide swaths of territory in 2014.







</s>Baghdad (Iraqinews.com) – The Iraqi Health Ministry said on Sunday that it handed over bodies of 38 Indian workers, who were killed by Islamic State (IS) militants in Mosul, to the Indian Embassy in Iraq to be flown home later Sunday, according to Sputnik News.

Indian Ambassador to Iraq Pradeep Singh Rajpurohit said the bodies had been taken to Baghdad International Airport and would be flown back on a military flight, arriving in India on Monday.

Indian Minister of State for External Affairs VK Singh had arrived here earlier in the day to bring back home remains of the 38 Indian workers, who were found buried in a mound of earth near Badush, a village northwest of Mosul, on March 20.

“I am going to Mosul to get mortal remains of 38 Indians,” XNews TV channel quoted Singh as saying, adding that the body of another dead worker will not be reclaimed now as “his case is pending.”

Singh stressed that the Indian government will hand over “coffins (of slain workers) to the family members with evidence so that they have no doubts about it.” He also offered condolences to the families of the deceased.

The Indian Express reported in June 2016, quoting Kurdish officials, that there was no sign of the 39 Indian workers in Iraq.

Last year, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj firmly said that she would not declare the 39 Indian workers, who were kidnapped by Islamic State (IS) militants in Mosul city three years ago, dead without concrete proof or evidence.

The abducted workers, mostly from northern India, had been found buried in a mound of earth near Badush, a village northwest of Mosul, on March 20.

They were employed by a construction company near Mosul when militants overran the Iraqi city and seized wide swaths of territory in 2014.</s>The minister of state for external affairs, general VK Singh (retired) left for Iraq Sunday afternoon to bring back the mortal remains of the 38 Indians killed in Mosul.

On March 20, external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj had told the Rajya Sabha that all the 39 Indians, who were missing in Iraq since 2014, had been killed by the terrorists of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS).

The 39 Indians, mostly natives of Punjab, were working on various projects near Mosul when they were kidnapped. She had added that DNA matches have already been made for 38 bodies.

As the DNA of the last body is still being examined, Singh will be getting back the dead bodies of only 38 people.

"I am going to Mosul to get mortal remains of 38 Indians, we won't get one man's remains as his case is pending. We will handover coffins to the family members with evidence so that they have no doubts about it," ANI quoted Singh as saying on Sunday.

He also expressed his condolences for the death of the 39 Indians.

The minister is expected to return to India with the bodies by late Monday or Tuesday.

"MoS Singh will most probably leave tomorrow (Sunday) for Iraq to bring back mortal remains of these 39 Indians. After coming back, he will first go to Amritsar followed by Patna, Kolkata to hand over bodies to their relatives," a source said Saturday.

According to reports, 40 Indians were taken captives by the ISIS militants in June 2014. While one of them named Harjit Masih managed to escape by posing as a Muslim laborer from Bangladesh, the others were killed.

Swaraj had said that the 39 Indians were taken to Badush and killed. The Iraqi Martyrs Foundation and the Indian Ambassador to Iraq, Pradeep Rajpurohit, had also confirmed the deaths and said that mortal remains of the 39 people had been found at Badush village.

Ever since Swaraj has made the announcement, she has been facing condemnation from the opposition parties in India for giving "false hope" to the families of the victims.

In fact, Congress has also conducted two Twitter polls to get Swaraj branded as a "failure" in her job as the external affairs minister</s>Indian Central Industrial Security Force personnel carry the coffin of Indian citizen Hemraj, who was killed in Iraq, at the International Airport in Amritsar on Monday (AFP photo)

AMRITSAR, India — The bodies of 38 Indian construction workers kidnapped and murdered in Iraq by the Daesh terrorist group returned home on Monday four years after their disappearance.

Grieving families — who were told for years by government officials that their loved ones were still alive — waited at an airport in the northwest state of Punjab to receive the coffins from Baghdad.

The victims were mostly from poor families in Punjab and were employed by a construction company in Mosul when they were abducted by extremists.

India’s foreign minister told parliament last month that 39 bodies were unearthed from a mass grave in Badush, a village northwest of Mosul.

DNA testing confirmed the identity of 38 of the corpses. One test was a partial match, with further examination needed, India’s junior foreign minister said on Monday.

The Indians were kidnapped in June 2014 as Daesh overran large swathes of territory in Iraq, including the major northern city of Mosul.

Indian officials for years insisted the abductees were alive until proven otherwise, drawing criticism from relatives who accused the government of keeping them in the dark.

Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj denied the government had given the families false hope. It is not known when the Indian construction workers were killed.</s>Baghdad: The mortal remains of 38 Indian construction workers captured and killed by the Islamic State group in northern Iraq were handed over to Indian authorities in Baghdad to be flown home later on Sunday.

Indian Ambassador Pradeep Singh Rajpurohit said the bodies had been taken to Baghdad International Airport and would be flown back on a military flight, arriving in India tomorrow. India's Minister of State for External Affairs, Vijay Kumar Singh, saluted the remains at the airport as workers loaded the caskets on the aircraft. Singh condemned terrorism and expressed his government's stance in fighting it.

"We are against terrorism in all its forms and manifestations," he told reporters, describing Islamic State as "very cruel terrorist organisation and our people have fallen to their bullets."

Islamic State abducted and killed the workers shortly after seizing the northern city of Mosul in the summer of 2014. Iraqi authorities discovered the remains in a mass grave last year after retaking Mosul, and positively identified the bodies last month.

The militants initially abducted 40 workers. One managed to escape, while the presumed remains of another have yet to be positively identified. Authorities are awaiting DNA samples from a first-degree relative.

The workers, most from northern India, had been employed by a construction company operating near Mosul. Around 10,000 Indians lived and worked in Iraq at the time. Islamic State may have viewed the workers as polytheists deserving of death because of their Hindu or Sikh faith.

Islamic State swept across northern and central Iraq in 2014, eventually seizing a third of the country. Iraqi forces backed by a US-led coalition eventually drove the militants from all the territory under their control in a gruelling three-year campaign. The militants are still carrying out insurgent-style attacks.

Dozens of mass graves have been found in areas held by the extremist group, which boasted about massacring its enemies and posted videos and photos of many of the mass killings online. Iraq has only managed to excavate a few of the sites due to a lack of funding and specialised staff.</s>Minister of State for External Affairs VK Singh on Sunday left for Iraq with a C-17 plane to bring back the mortal remains of 39 Indians that were killed by the Islamic State in Mosul.

According to media reports, Singh will visit Iraq in a special IAF aircraft, which will directly land at Amritsar in Punjab on April 2 with the mortal remains, which were exhumed from a mass grave in Badosh.

On March 20, Sushma Swaraj informed the Parliament that the 39 Indians abducted by Islamic State in Mosul in Iraq were dead and their bodies have been recovered.

"There will be legal processes. We are waiting for information from there (Iraq). It may take 8-10 days (to bring back the bodies)," Singh said outside Parliament.

A group of 40 Indian workers, mostly from Punjab, and some Bangladeshi were taken hostage by ISIS when it overran Iraq's second largest city Mosul in 2014. Of the 40 Indians, one Harjit Masih from Gurdaspur had managed to escape and had claimed to have witnessed the massacre of the others. But the government rejected it.

For breaking news & Instant updates throughout the day</s>Minister of State (MoS) for External Affairs VK Singh will bring mortals of 38 Indian on Monday, who were killed in Mosul by the Islamic state. The Indian government will bring back mortal remains of 38 Indian out of 39 as a case is still pending for man’s remains. VK Singh left for Iraq yesterday and expected to return with mortals today, which will be handed over to their families. The minister has confirmed that the families of the deceased have been informed.

MoS VK Singh also informed about their return through a tweet saying “Kuch Zimmedariyo Ka Bojh Kafi Jyada Hota Hai… “ (Some responsibilities are really hard).

Sources have informed that the delegation will first go to Punjab and then visit West Bengal, Himachal Pradesh and Bihar to handover the mortal remains to their relatives. The minister will be flying by a C-17 plane, confirmed a report. Before leaving the country Singh said, “I am going to Mosul to get mortal remains of 38 Indians, we won’t get one man’s remains as his case is pending. We will handover coffins to the family members with evidence so that they have no doubts about it. My deepest condolence to the families of the deceased.”

A few days ago, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj, had informed the Parliament that the 39 Indians, who went missing in Iraq’s Mosul, were killed by the terror outfit IS in 2014. After the announcement, the Opposition and relatives of the deceased had criticised Sushma Swaraj for the way she broke the news in the parliament and keeping the families of deceased in dark for four long years. She had then confirmed that VK Singh will visit Iraq to bring back the mortal remains to the country.

ALSO READ: CBSE official KS Rana suspended in paper leak case for ‘lax’ in supervision at exam centre</s>New Delhi — A special plane flight carrying the bodies of 38 Indian construction workers killed by the Islamic State group in Iraq has arrived in the northern Indian city of Amritsar.

India's junior defence minister flew back with the bodies on Monday.

The Islamic State group abducted and killed the workers shortly after seizing the northern Iraqi city of Mosul in the summer of 2014.

Read: India confirms deaths of 39 workers abducted by ISIS in Iraq

Iraqi authorities discovered the remains in a mass grave last year after retaking Mosul and identified the bodies last month.

One escaped and the presumed remains of another have yet to be positively identified.</s>NEW DELHI (AP) - A special plane carrying the bodies of 38 Indian construction workers killed by the Islamic State group in Iraq arrived in the northern Indian city of Amritsar on Monday.

The Islamic State group abducted and killed the workers shortly after seizing the northern Iraqi city of Mosul in the summer of 2014. Iraqi authorities discovered the remains in a mass grave last year after retaking Mosul, and identified the bodies last month.

Pradeep Singh Rajpurohit, center, India's Ambassador to Iraq, watches while a casket holding one of 38 Indians abducted by the Islamic State group in 2014, that were found in a mass grave outside Mosul, is loaded on a truck to be transported from Baghdad's main morgue to the Baghdad airport, in Iraq, Sunday, April 1, 2018. The remains of the Indian construction workers captured and killed by IS militants in northern Iraq have been handed over to Indian authorities in Baghdad and will be flown home. (AP Photo/Khalid Mohammed)

Forty workers were initially abducted. One escaped and the presumed remains of another have yet to be positively identified. Authorities are awaiting DNA samples from a close relative.

The workers were mostly from northern India's Punjab state and had been employed by a construction company operating near Mosul. Around 10,000 Indians lived and worked in Iraq at the time. The victims may have been killed because of their Hindu or Sikh faith.

The Islamic State group swept across northern and central Iraq in 2014, eventually seizing a third of the country. Iraqi forces backed by a U.S.-led coalition eventually drove the militants from all the territory under their control in a grueling three-year campaign. The militants are still carrying out insurgent-style attacks.

Dozens of mass graves have been found in areas held by the extremist group, which boasted about massacring its enemies and posted videos and photos of many of the mass killings online. Iraq has only managed to excavate a few of the sites due to a lack of funding and specialized staff.

"We are thankful to the authorities in Iraq for the help to locate the victims and exhume the mortal remains. The government of India did its best to know about the missing Indians," Singh told reporters in Amritsar.

A casket holding one of 38 Indians abducted by the Islamic State group in 2014, that were found in a mass grave outside Mosul, is loaded on an aircraft belonging to Indian Air Force in Baghdad International Airport, Iraq, Sunday, April 1, 2018. The remains of 38 Indian construction workers captured and killed by the IS militants in northern Iraq were handed over to Indian authorities in Baghdad to be flown home later Sunday. (AP Photo/Khalid Mohammed)

Pradeep Singh Rajpurohit, right, India's Ambassador to Iraq, watches while a casket holding one of 38 Indians abducted by the Islamic State group in 2014, that were found in a mass grave outside Mosul, is loaded on a truck to be transported from Baghdad's main morgue to the Baghdad airport, in Iraq, Sunday, April 1, 2018. The remains of the Indian construction workers captured and killed by IS militants in northern Iraq have been handed over to Indian authorities in Baghdad and will be flown home. (AP Photo/Khalid Mohammed)

A casket holding one of 38 Indians abducted by the Islamic State group in 2014, that were found in a mass grave outside Mosul, is loaded on a truck to be transported from Baghdad's main morgue to the Baghdad airport, in Iraq, Sunday, April 1, 2018. The remains of the Indian construction workers captured and killed by IS militants in northern Iraq have been handed over to Indian authorities in Baghdad and will be flown home. (AP Photo/Khalid Mohammed)</s>A special plane flight carrying the bodies of 38 Indian construction workers killed by the Islamic State group in Iraq has arrived in the northern Indian city of Amritsar.

India's junior defense minister flew back with the bodies on Monday.

The Islamic State group abducted and killed the workers shortly after seizing the northern Iraqi city of Mosul in the summer of 2014. Iraqi authorities discovered the remains in a mass grave last year after retaking Mosul, and identified the bodies last month.

Forty workers were initially abducted. One escaped and the presumed remains of another have yet to be positively identified. Authorities are awaiting DNA samples from a close relative.
Indian Minister of State for External Affairs V.K. Singh travels to Iraq to reclaim the bodies of 38 workers abducted in Mosul by ISIL in 2016 after they were found in a mass grave near Badush last month.