Earlier this month, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj had told Parliament that as many as 40 Indians were abducted by ISIS from Mosul in Iraq in June 2014
Minister of State for External Affairs VK Singh who landed at Amritsar airport on Monday on a special aircraft along with the mortal remains of 38 of the 39 Indians killed by ISIS in Iraq, triggered a controversy by saying that providing jobs and compensations to families of the deceased was not like distributing biscuits or a game of football.
Responding to a question about compensation to the families, Singh said, “Yeh biscuit baantne wala kaam nahi hai, ye admiyon ki zindagi ka sawal hai. Aa gayi baat samajh mein? (This is not like distributing biscuits. It involves human lives. Do you get it?). Singh further added, “Jeb mein koi pitara thodi rakha hua hai” (I don’t carry funds in my pocket).
The minister refused to make any announcement at the moment.
The special aircraft landed at Amritsar from Baghdad around 2:30 pm as distraught relatives gathered to receive the coffins. Punjab Cabinet minister Navjot Singh Sidhu was also present at the airport.
Singh had left for Iraq on Sunday to bring back the mortal remains of the Indians, killed in the war-torn country.
Earlier this month, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj had told Parliament that as many as 40 Indians were abducted by 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.
The government had faced criticism for keeping the relatives in dark about the deaths and giving them false hope that their loved ones were alive. Most of those killed worked as labourers and were sole bread earners for their families.
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 were flown to their respective places in Patna and Kolkata to be handed over to their relatives.
Among those killed 27 belonged to Punjab while four hailed from Himachal Pradesh.
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