Kin of 39 Indians missing in Iraq to undergo DNA test

Amritsar : Families of all 39 Indians who went missing in Iraq three years ago have been asked to undergo DNA tests for unspecified reasons. “All of us have been asked to undergo DNA test; don’t know why. We are very nervous,” Gurpinder, the sister of Manjinder, who is one among the 39, told ANI. In 2014, 39 Indian labourers, mostly from Punjab, were reportedly taken hostage by ISIS when it overran Iraq’s second largest city of Mosul. The workers were trying to leave Mosul when they were intercepted. There has been no word on them but govt insisted that without information otherwise, the workers are still considered alive.

External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj earlier told family members that an Iraqi official quoting intel sources had told MoS for External Affairs General (Retd) VK Singh that the kidnapped Indians were deployed at a hospital construction site and shifted to a farm before they were put in a Badush jail. However, reportedly earlier the Iraqi foreign minister had asserted that his dispensation possessed no substantial evidence on the missing persons.