Longing to hear from loved ones in Iraq

Deepkamal Kaur

Tribune News Service

Jalandhar, June 9

Exactly three years after their kin had gone missing in Iraq after being held in captivity by the ISIS, the 39 families have not left hope. Rather they are much more optimistic after having met Union Minister of External Affairs Sushma Swaraj yesterday in New Delhi for the 11th time in this context.

The family members said that even as over 1,000 days had passed since they had heard from their dear ones, they still keep on trying their phone numbers with the hope that these would have got activated. They share how their lives have changed and their wait has become agonising.

“Had I not been getting Rs 20,000 a month as government help, my life would have got completely ruined. My son Sandeep Kumar, who was then just 18, and my brother Nand Lal have been missing for three years. My husband is addicted to alcohol and my younger son is not employed. I just hope that this wait for my dear ones end up at the earliest. I could not make it to Delhi today, but my elder brother had gone to make the plea for their early return,” said Sumitra Rani from Nakodar.

Manjit Kaur of Rurka Kalan, whose husband Dalwinder Kaur is missing for three years, had gone to Delhi yesterday for the meeting, “The minister told us that since the turmoil in Iraq is settling, she was hopeful that the area where 39 men had been held too would be cleared in the next two-three months. She told us all that we should continue to have patience till then and this is what we have been doing.”

Manjit, who runs a training centre in stitching, added, “I have three sons who still are hopeful of seeing their dad. My younger twins were just six months old then and have no memories of their father.

Kamaljit Kaur, wife of Roop Lal from Bath Kalan village, said that her expenses were much more than the assistance given by the government. “So, I am working as a domestic help in four houses. I have never been able to go to Delhi because of limited means and have no place where I can leave my two sons. All my relatives have abandoned me since the incident,” she lamented. “Whenever I retry calling my husband on his phone from where he had last called me on June 13, 2014, an Arab man picks it up and I cannot comprehend what he is speaking. But I do keep trying,” she said.