Sushma Swaraj confirmed the deaths of the 39 Indians in Mosul in the parliament. (File photo)
Thirty nine Indians who were kidnapped in Iraq by terror group ISIS nearly three years ago are dead, foreign minister Sushma Swaraj told parliament today. "With full proof I can say these 39 are dead. We wanted to give the families closure only after concrete proof," Ms Swaraj said. Their bodies were found in a mass grave in Badush, 31 km from Iraq's second largest city of Mosul, and sent to a local organisation for DNA testing. Most of the construction workers were from Punjab. "Shattered at the heart-wrenching news... that the 39 Indians missing in Iraq, most of whom were Punjabis, are dead," Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh said on Twitter. "My heart goes out to the families who had been living in hope since their reported abduction by ISIS in 2014." One of the Indians, Harjit Masih from Punjab's Gurdaspur, managed to escape after posing as a Muslim. He claimed that he saw his compatriots executed but the government rejected it.
Here are the names of 26 of the 39 Indians who were kidnapped and killed by the ISIS in Iraq's Mosul:1. Manjinder Singh
2. Jatinder Singh
3. Harsimaranjit Singh
4. Sonu
5. Gurcharan Singh
6. Kawaljit Singh
7. Nishan Singh
8. Harish Kumar
9. Gohinder Singh
10. Malkit Singh
11. Ranjit Singh
12. Dharminder Kumar
13. Balwant Rai
14. Kamaljit Singh
15. Gurdeep Singh
16. Kulwinder
17. Roop Lal
18. Surjit Mainka
19. Dawinder Singh
20. Pritpal Sharma
21. Rakesh
22. Aman Kumar
23. Inderjit
24. Sandeep Kumar
25. Vidhya
26. Santosh Kumar