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Mortal remains of 38 Indians killed in Iraq arrives in India by special aircraft; relatives distraught

Mortal remains of 38 Indians killed in Iraq arrives in India by special aircraft; relatives distraught

Minister of State for External Affairs VK Singh had left for Iraq on Sunday to bring back the mortal remains of the Indians.
Amritsar: A special aircraft carrying the mortal remains of 38 Indians killed in Iraq arrived at the Amritsar International Airport on Monday. The aircraft with the remains of the 38 slain Indians, out of 39, landed at Amritsar from Baghdad around 2:30 pm.
The presumed remains of one of those killed were yet to be positively identified, PTI reported.
A group of 40 Indian workers, mostly from Punjab, were taken hostage by ISIS when it overran Iraq’s second largest city Mosul in 2014. One of them escaped by posing as a Muslim from Bangladesh, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj had said in a statement in Rajya Sabha. The other 39 are dead and their bodies have been recovered, she had added.
The EAM had further said that the bodies of the slain Indians were recovered from Badosh, a village northwest of Mosul and their identities had been established through DNA testing.
The news agency also reported that relatives of the deceased received the bodies with teary eyes in Amritsar on Monday and an air of gloom descended as distraught families looked at the caskets.
Minister of State for External Affairs VK Singh had left for Iraq on Sunday to bring back the mortal remains of the Indians. While the remains of the 31 men belonging to Punjab and Himachal Pradesh were received at the Sri Guru Ram Das Jee International Airport in Amritsar, the rest of the bodies would be flown to their respective places in Patna and Kolkata to be handed over to their relatives.
On being asked whether kin of the 38 Indians will be given jobs, Singh said, “This is not a game of football, Both state and central governments are sensitive governments. EAM EAM had asked the families for the details of their members who can be given jobs etc, we will review,” ANI reported.
Out of these, 27 belonged to Punjab while four hailed from Himachal Pradesh.
Earlier this month, Swaraj had told Parliament that as many as 40 Indians were abducted by terror group ISIS from Mosul in Iraq in June 2014, but one of them escaped posing as a Muslim from Bangladesh. The remaining 39 Indians were taken to Badoosh and killed, she had said.

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