New Delhi: Peshmerga units of Kurdish Regional Government monitoring the Islamic State’s preparations ahead of a government offensive to recapture the Iraqi city of Mosul have found no evidence that Indian or other South Asian workers were being deployed to dig trenches and gun positions, a media report said on Wednesday.
The remarks have raised eyebrows as the Indian government has repeatedly said that 39 Indian construction workers who were kidnapped by the Islamic State in 2014 are still alive.
“From all information we have, our assessment is, regrettably, that the Indian workers were shot dead near Badoush (in Mosul) within days of being taken hostage by the Islamic State, and then buried in a mass grave near Sahaji,” a senior Kurdish Regional Government official said in an e-mail to The Indian Express.
However, the assessment is based on intelligence reports as the territories are still being held by the Islamic State.
The Ministry of External Affairs, however, has maintained that there is credible information that at least some of the hostages were still alive.
Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas had assured External Affairs minister Sushma Swaraj in January that his intelligence services had spotted some of the men.
Abbas also told President Pranab Mukherjee when he visited Palestine in October that the missing Indians are safe, however, no supporting evidence was provided in support of that.
In addition, reports said, Swaraj had received similar assurances from two other West Asian governments.
Harjit Masih, who was among the 39 victims, returned home unscathed to tell the story of his abduction. He claimed he had been abducted with the rest, seen all of them being shot dead by the abductors, and that he was the only one to escape with no injuries except a slight graze from a bullet on his thigh.
Masih was arrested in March this year and is in jail ever since. He was arrested after a complaint by families of nine of the missing men. They alleged they had paid Masih and his relative Rajbir Masih sums ranging from Rs 1.5 lakh to Rs 2 lakh for visas and jobs abroad.
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