DNA test for relatives of missing people is normal procedure, says Centre

New Delhi, October 22

The Centre has said that asking relatives of the 39 Indians who went missing in Mosul, Iraq, three years ago to undergo DNA test is normal procedure to confirm identification.

Both India and Iraq maintain that the 39 Indian nationals are still alive and authorities in both countries remain committed to continuing their search for them on this assumption.

“All of us have been asked to undergo DNA test,” Gurpinder, sister of Manjinder, one of the missing Indians, told ANI.

It may be recalled that in July this year, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj had firmly said in a statement in Parliament that she would not declare the 39 Indians dead without concrete proof or evidence.

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“It is a sin to declare a person dead without concrete evidence. I will not do this sin,” Swaraj said in a statement in the Lok Sabha on the fate of the Indians missing in Iraq since 2014.

India has asked Iraq for help in locating the missing Indians after Iraqi forces recaptured Mosul from ISIS, and New Delhi has repeatedly said it won’t end the search for these missing citizens believing that they are still alive.

“This file will not close till there is proof that the 39 Indians are dead. I will not commit the sin of declaring them dead without any evidence,” Swaraj had said in July, adding that insofar as this emotive issue is concerned, there is no benefit to the government by misleading the people.

Iraq’s Foreign Minister Ibrahim al-Eshaiker al-Jafari is also on record saying around that time that Baghdad does not have “substantial evidence” to prove that the missing Indians are dead.

The 39 people, most of whom hail from Punjab, were working on projects near Mosul, when they were kidnapped during their evacuation.

India is on record saying that every effort is being made by Iraq and other countries to help trace the kidnapped Indians. ANI