Sushma Swaraj confirmed the deaths of the 39 Indians in Mosul in the parliament. (File photo)
The mortal remains of one of the
39 Indians killed in ISIS captivity in Iraq were consigned to flames on Wednesday. Gurdeep Singh, whose last rites of were performed at his native village Jaitpur in Punjab, is survived by his mother Surinder Kaur, wife Anita Rani, a 5-year-old son and 7-year-old daughter.
Last month, Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj had told parliament that the
39 Indians out of 40 who were abducted by terror group ISIS from Mosul in Iraq had died.
DNA testing by Martyrs Foundation had established the identity of 38 Indians while there was 70 per cent matching of the DNA for the 39th person.
In June 2014, 40 Indians were abducted by ISIS from Mosul in Iraq, but one of them escaped posing as a Muslim from Bangladesh. The remaining 39 were taken to Badoosh and killed. Out of the 39 killed, 27 hailed from Punjab, four from Himachal Pradesh, six from Bihar and two from West Bengal.
Search operations led to a mound in Badoosh where locals said some bodies were buried by the ISIS. Deep penetration radars were used to establish that the mound indeed was a mass grave, Ms Swaraj had said, adding the Indian authorities requested their Iraqi counterpart to exhume the bodies.
The mass grave had exactly 39 bodies, with distinctive features such as long hair, non-Iraqi shoes and IDs. The bodies were then sent to Baghdad for DNA testing.
On April 3, Prime Minister Narendra
had announced an ex-gratia payment of Rs. 10 lakh each to the next of the families of 39 Indians.
With Inputs from PTI