President Kovind expresses sadness over killing of 39 Indians in Mosul

"Extremely sad to learn of tragic end of 39 of our fellow citizens in Iraq. Every Indian shares pain and grief of bereaved families. We appreciate efforts of Govt and of officials who worked hard to take the sad episode to a conclusion over the past four years #PresidentKovind," read a tweet on the official page of the President.

External Affairs Minister Sushma  Swaraj on Tuesday informed the Rajya Sabha that 39 Indians, who had gone missing in Iraqi town Mosul in 2014, have been killed in captivity of ISIS terrorists.

Swaraj noted that while everyone listened to her statement patiently in the Rajya Sabha, she expected the same in the Lok Sabha but the Congress led by Jyotiraditya Scindia disrupted her speech.

She said Minister of State V K Singh will go to Iraq to bring  the victims' bodies back home.

The Minister said told the media  DNA samples of 38 people have been matched, verification of one victim is under process.

She informed that  27 of the people were from Punjab, four  from Himachal Pradesh, six from Bihar and two  from West Bengal.

One person whose DNA has matched 70 percent with the samples is from Bihar.

She said that the next logical conclusion would to grant closure to the families by bringing the bodies back. "I have asked the High Commission to fast track the process to bring the bodies back so that the family members can at least hold funeral rituals and grieve their dead."

In July last year, Swaraj had told Parliament that there was no evidence that the missing people had been  killed by the Islamic terrorists and that they can't be declared as dead.