NEW DELHI: The CPI (M) today lashed out at the government and External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj for not informing the families of the Mosul victims before informing Parliament.
Reacting strongly against the government, CPI (M) member of Lok Sabha Mohammad Salim said it showed how "insensitive and inhuman" the government is.
"It is a farce. The government should have contacted the families of the victims first before Parliament was informed. Earlier, the government had always claimed that it was in touch with the families. So many times we see that policies of the government are announced outside Parliament even though the House is in session," Salim told reporters.
He also added that the government could not call the opposition insensitive as it had not been able to perform its own duty.
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 said in a statement in the Rajya Sabha.
The other 39 are dead and their bodies have been recovered, she said.
While it was not immediately known when the Indians were killed, their bodies were recovered from Badosh, a village northwest of Mosul, and their identities established through DNA testing, she said.
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.
Refuting allegations of disrupting the House, the Left and the Trinamool Congress (TMC) today accused the government of "orchestrating a din" in the Lok Sabha to stop discussions on the no-confidence motion.
The Left and the TMC, who are supporting the no-confidence motion brought in by the YSR Congress and the TDP, today held the ruling BJP responsible for not letting the House run properly. Read story HERE.