Govt lied, mishandled issue of 39 Indians killed in Iraq: Congress

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, March 20

The Congress on Tuesday accused External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj of repeatedly lying to the nation and families of 39 Indians slain in Iraq.

"We kept asking the minister in Parliament about these people and she kept saying they were safe and sound," Senior Congress leader Ambika Soni said.

Swaraj and the BJP government has square responsibility of bringing these people back, but they kept on misleading, Soni told mediapersons.

Congress MP from Punjab Partap Singh Bajwa said this is a tragic news for India "I raised the matter in zero hour last year in Parliament. The government kept telling the families that they had reports from six sources that these people are alive."

Bajwa said Harjit Masih from his area, Gurdaspur kept saying these people had been killed but the government didn't believe him.

He added that the government was sleeping till the Iraqi President declared the capture of Mosul.

"VK Singh was sent to Iraq to probe the matter and he said the captive Indians had been shifted to some jail on the outskirts of Mosul but it was learnt that the jail was under ISIS capture," Bajwa said.

"The government lied and mishandled the issue," he said, adding Swaraj knew she had taken a wrong stand on the issue throughout but she was never willing to admit that.

Ambika Soni said, "The government was in such a hurry to get over with the statement in Rajya Sabha that we could not even stand in two-minute silence to condole the deaths." The government should give Rs 1 crore each to families, she demanded. 

The Congress also demands public apology from Sushma Swaraj, Union minister Harsimrat Badal and former Punjab CM Prakash Singh Badal to the shocked families of 39 slain Indians, Soni said.