New Delhi, Mar 20: External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj informed the Parliament on Tuesday about the death of 39 Indian workers in Iraq, who were abducted by the cadres of extremist group Islamic State (ISIS) in 2014.
Swaraj, later while addressing the press, said the bodies of the 39 Indians were recovered from a fort in Mosul. Subsequently, they were flown to Baghdad where the DNA test was conducted over a period of time to ascertain their identities.
"We had send the DNA samples of either the mother or father of the missing Indians to the Martyrs Foundation. Over a period of time, we received updates on some DNA samples matching. But the last DNA confirmation was received only last night," Swaraj said.
27 of the 39 Indians killed belonged to Punjab, 4 from Bihar, 2 from West Bengal and 6 from Bihar.
Union MoS, Defence, Gen (retd) V K Singh will be dispatched to Baghdad to bring the bodies back to the nation.
Here is the full list of 27 victims whose names have been disclosed by the Ministry of External Affairs:
S No | Name | Father's Name | City of Origin |
1 | Manjinder Singh | Hardeep Singh | Bhoewal (Amritsar) |
2 | Jatinder Singh | Balkar Singh | Sialka (Amritsar) |
3 | Harsimaranjit Singh | Tarsem Singh | Babowal (Amritsar) |
4 | Sonu | Shira | Chwinda Devi (Amritsar) |
5 | Gurcharan Singh | Sardara Singh | Jalal Usman (Amritsar) |
6 | Kawaljit Singh | Harbhajan Singh | Roopawali PO - Bholeke Batala (Gurdaspur) |
7 | Nishan Singh | Gurmej Singh | Sangoana, PO-Kamanpur, Teh-Ajanala (Amritsar) |
8 | Harish Kumar | Satpal Singh | Batala (Gurdaspur) |
9 | Gobinder Singh | Baldinder Singh | Murar, PO-Hamira (Kapurthala) |
10 | Malkit Singh | Sukhdev Singh | Tilianwala Batal (Gurdaspur) |
11 | Ranjit Singh | Balwinder Singh | Manawala, The-Ajnala (Amritsar) |
12 | Dharminder Kumar | Raj Kumar | Talwandi Jhira PO-Bhullar, Teh-Batala (Gurdaspur) |
13 | Balwant Rai | Ronki Ram | Dhadde (Jalandhar) |
14 | Kamaljit Singh | Prem Singh | Choni Kalan (Hoshiarpur) |
15 | Gurdeep Singh | Mukhtar Singh | Jaidpur (Hoshiarpur) |
16 | Kulwinder | Jagdish Kumar | Khanke (Bhogpur) |
17 | Roop Lal | Gurdev Lal | Bath Kalan, Nakoder |
18 | Surjit Mainka | Hans Raj | Churuwali (Jalandhar) |
19 | Dawinder Singh | Kewal Singh | Chak Desh Raj (Jalandhar) |
20 | Parvinder Kumar | Jeet Ram | Jagatpur |
21 | Pritpal Sharma | Sadha Singh | Dhuri |
22 | Rakesh | Madan Lal | Qadian |
23 | Aman Kumar | Himachal Pradesh | |
24 | Inderjit | Himachal Pradesh | |
25 | Sandeep Kumar | Himachal Pradesh | |
26 | Vidhya | Bushan Tiwari | Bihar |
27 | Santosh Kumar | Bihar |
While all 39 Indians have been proclaimed dead by the government, the Iraq-based Martyrs Foundation has refrained from identifying one deceased - Bihar's Raju Yadav - as the DNA samples of his mother and father could not be sent due to their deaths.
"Based upon the DNA sample of one his close relative, the body has been identified upto 70 per cent," Swaraj said, adding that the Martyrs Foundation would handover the body only after 95 per cent identification is completed.
(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Mar 20, 2018 05:19 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).