External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj makes a statement in Rajya Sabha on 39 Indians missing in Iraq
The government says there is no evidence to support a media report that claimed 39 Indians who went missing in Iraq in June have been killed by Islamic State militants.
Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj said the same allegation - that the Indians have been killed - has been reported in different newspapers over the last few months. "We are not trusting these reports, we continue to make every effort to locate the Indians and bring them back safely," she said in Parliament.
ABP news last night claimed that in Erbil in Iraq, its reporter met with two Bangladeshi construction workers who said one of 40 Indians taken hostage by IS earlier this year had managed to escape and told them that the rest of his group had been killed.
The Indians worked with a construction company in Baghdad. They were kidnapped in Iraq's second largest city of Mosul after it fell to IS. No ransom demand has been received, the government has said.