CHANDIGARH: Family members of 39 Indians who were abducted in Mosul three years ago said that they have lost trust in the government following its constant reneging on statements in regard to retrieving the 39 Indians from the war-torn city in Iraq which was recently freed from the clutches of Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS).
The statements come after external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj spoke on the issue in the Lok Sabha on Wednesday, where she said that the Iraqi foreign minister had never said that the 39 missing Indians were dead and that the file on matter will not be closed until any evidence pertaining to their death is received by the government .
Among the 39 Indian youth who had been missing, 22 are from Amritsar, Gurdaspur, Hoshiarpur, Kapurthala and Jalandhar in Punjab.
Gurpinder Kaur, whose 26-year-old brother Manjinder Singh is among the missing, said, "Just 48 days ago, on June 8, Sushma Swaraj told us that she had information that 25 of the 39 missing people were alive and they have been traced.”
Kaur said, “Now, she is saying that she has no information about them. The government is just buying time and not telling the truth."
Sarwan Singh, who belongs to Amritsar and whose brother, Nishan Singh, is among the missing people, said, “If the government cannot get them back, at least it should tell us where they are or in which jail they are lodged and most importantly if they are dead or alive. It has been three years, and the government has been misleading us.”
“They have been continuously lying to us as they all they want is to finish their five-year term. The government should have rescued them when the nurses from Kerala were rescued in 2014,’’Sarwan Singh added.
Jasbir Kaur, sister of missing Ranjit Singh, said, “From the very beginning, the government did not investigate the whereabouts of the 29 Indians missing in an appropriate manner."
Family members of the other missing persons echoed similar views as they said that the Central government did not have any concrete information about their missing family members.