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Survivor Harjit Masih was lying, escaped ISIS by pretending to be Ali: Sushma Swaraj

Swaraj talked about the death of 39 Indians in Iraq.

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On Tuesday, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj delivered in a statement the fate of 39 Indians who were killed in Iraq. She also spoke about the lone survivor, Harjit Masih who escaped his ISIS captors.

Swaraj while delivering a statement in Parliament was quoted saying by The Indian Express: “I have two (pieces of) information. First, Harjit Masih who escaped was lying and, second, the Indians are dead. And I have proofs for these.”

She said: “Masih had cooked up a story saying they were taken to a jungle where ISIS terrorists fired. The bullet shot his leg. But somehow he managed to leave and the others got killed. Hence, Masih’s story was wrong. He had left in the beginning only by becoming Ali.”

"His was a cock-and-bull story," Swaraj was quoted saying by PTI, adding he had managed to flee the ISIS by faking his identity as a Muslim from Bangladesh.

Masih had claimed that to have escaped the Islamic state in 2015, that he was saying from day one that they had been killed. Masih, who escaped by posing as a Muslim from Bangladesh said: “I think government knew about the deaths, but due to political reasons they did not go public with it. Even Bangladeshi men had confirmed that they were separated from the group of Indians.”

A case was also lodged against Masih after families of the 39 Indians registered a complaint and he is currently out on bail. He added: “Now, since the government has admitted that the men are dead, the case against me should be withdrawn.” He spent six months in jail.

All the 39 Indians abducted by the ISIS terror outfit in Mosul in Iraq three years ago are dead and their bodies have been recovered, Swaraj said.

While it was not immediately known when the Indians were killed, their bodies were recovered from Badosh - a village in northwest of Mosul, and their identities established through DNA testing, she said making a suo motu statement in the Rajya Sabha.

The mortal remains, which were exhumed from a mass grave in Badosh, will be brought back to India on a special plane and handed over to their relatives, she said.

"I had said that I will not declare anyone dead without substantive proof... today I have come to fulfil that commitment," she said.

"I had said that closure will be done with full proof.
And when we will, with a heavy heart, give the mortal remains to their kin, it will be a kind of closure." 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.

The Indians were first kept at a textile factory in Mosul and after Masih escaped, they were moved to a prison in Badosh.

Relentless search for them led to a mass grave in Badosh, where deep penetration radar was used to establish the presence of bodies below a mound. The bodies, which were exhumed with help from Iraqi authorities, had distinctive features like long hair, 'kada', non-Iraqi shoes and IDs.

The bodies were sent to Baghdad for DNA testing.

The government was told yesterday that the DNA of 38 Indians matched with the remains of bodies found. One body was a 70 per cent match, she said.

Swaraj said she has previously maintained that the abducted Indians would not be declared dead without substantive proof.

Now, there is proof, she said.

Giving details, she said when ISIS overan Mosul, most Iraqis left the city but Indian and Bangladeshi workers stayed back.

Inquiries from a caterer revealed that the ISIS caught them when they were coming back after meals. They were first taken to a textile factory where Bangladeshi workers were separated and sent to the city of Erbil.

The caterer stated that he had received a call from one 'Ali' who claimed that he is from Bangladesh and should be moved to Erbil as commanded by the ISIS, she said, adding Masih had called her up from Erbil but could not say how he had reached there.

"He had escaped by faking as Ali in the van arranged by caterer" to transport Bangladeshi to Erbil, she said.

When next day, a count of Indians found one of them missing, they all were moved to Badosh.

The minister said after the ISIS was overthrown, her deputy and Minister of State for External Affairs V K Singh visited Iraq in search of the missing Indians.

He along with the Indian Ambassador and an Iraqi official searched the Badosh prison, the last known location of 39 Indians.

Commending Singh for his efforts, she said the three had to sleep on floor of a small house during the search operations.

Local inquiries led to the mass grave, from where bodies were exhumed and taken to Baghdad for DNA testing. Baghdad- based Martyrs Foundation was requested to help establish the identity of Indians on priority.

"The first match was of Sandeep... yesterday 38 matches were confirmed and 39th person had been 70 per cent matched because DNA of his relatives was used in absence of his parents," she said.

"It has been the most difficult and complex task to get the proof," she said. "Such a barbaric terror organization.
There were mass graves. It was a pile of bodies. To track down the bodies of our people and take them to Baghdad to test was a huge task."

The minister thanked Iraqi authorities for excellent cooperation in first using deep penetration radar to locate the bodies, then exhuming them and later transferring them to Baghdad for DNA testing.

She said Singh will travel to Iraq to bring back the mortal remains on a special plane. The first stop on way back would be Amritsar where 31 bodies of those from Punjab and four from Himachal Pradesh would be handed over to the relatives. It will then travel to Patna and then to Kolkata.

Chairman Chairman M Venkaiah Naidu termed it as very sad news, after which the MPs stood in silence to mourn the dead.

Opposition Congress condoled the deaths but its leader and Leader of the Opposition Ghulam Nabi Azad sought to remind the government that it had "assured us last year that the Indians were alive".

Days after Mosul's liberation from ISIS was announced, VK Singh was sent to Iraq.

Last year, Swaraj had told the families of the workers that an Iraqi official, quoting intelligence sources, had told VK Singh that the Indians were made to work at a hospital construction site and then shifted to a farm before they were put in a jail in Badosh.

Swaraj wanted to make a similar statement in the Lok Sabha but could not do so because of ruckus created by opposition members. 

 

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