Modi government played politics over death of Indians in Iraq: Congress

Addressing a press conference on Tuesday evening, Congress leader Randeep Surjewala lashed out at the central government and External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj for allegedly suppressing the news of the deaths of 39 Indians for four years.

Interacting with media, Surjewala said: "The BJP government did not reveal the matter earlier. They are playing politics. They told families of the deceased people that they were alive for four years. The government must compensate them."

Surjewala also slammed Swaraj for 'denying' the reports of the death of Indians, who were captivated by the ISIS militants, which surfaced in media earlier.

Surjewala said: "She (Sushma Swaraj) earlier said they (the deceased people) were given all facilities including food and other requirements. At that time, all agencies were telling that they were killed. The Indian media also told they were dead but Swaraj denied the matter. Swaraj denied the information given by an eye witness too."

"The Modi government is doing politics. The government has committed sin by keeping all those families hopeful for four years that their members were alive," the Congress leader added.

Surjewala alleged that the BJP government tried to somehow convey the news on Tuesday as the martyrs association would have revealed the facts.

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.