Kin of Indians killed in Iraq asks for DNA reports

Jalandhar: A distraught kin of one of the 39 Indians killed in Iraq has demanded that the DNA test reports of his deceased brother be given to his family.

"We demand that reports of the DNA test be given to us," said Malkit Ram, brother of Saganandlal.

Sharing details, Malkit said that his brother went to Iraq in 2012 to work as a carpenter.

"We had been asking Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) for proof of him being alive or dead," he added.

On Tuesday, External Affairs Minister (EAM) Sushma Swaraj told the Parliament that all the 39 Indians, who went missing in Iraqi city of Mosul in 2014, were killed by the dreaded militants of the so-called Islamic State (IS).

Following Swaraj's announcement, some of the families expressed anguish that till now the External Affairs Ministry continued to assure them that the captured Indians were alive.

However, while addressing the media, Swaraj claimed that the government did not keep anyone in the dark on the issue.

"We had been saying that we neither have the evidence of them being alive nor the evidence of them being dead. We maintained this in 2014 and 2017 and we did not keep anyone in dark. We have not given false hopes to anyone," Swaraj said.

The 39 persons, most of whom hailed from Punjab, were working on projects near strife-ridden Mosul when they were kidnapped during their evacuation.