Also pursuing the release of 39 Indian captives in Iraq: Sushma
New Delhi : External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj said on Sunday that the Indian government was making efforts to trace Judith D’Souza, who has been abducted in Afghanistan, and also pursuing the case of 39 Indians who have been missing from Iraq for the past two years following their abduction by Islamic State militants.
“In the last two years, I have not abandoned even a single Indian national, whether he is alone or in group or in captive,” Sushma Swaraj said in her annual press conference here.
“It is my duty to save every Indian whether he is stranded or captive be it Prem Kumar (a Jesuit priest who was released from Afghanistan last year), Judith or 39 Indians who are in captive. My duty is to bring them all to India,” she added.
Judith, 40, working with NGO Aga Khan Development Network was kidnapped earlier this month while she was returning home after a dinner at a friend’s place in the Qala-e-Fatullah area of Kabul. Hailing from Kolkata, she had had been working with the NGO in Kabul as a senior technical adviser since July 2015, reports IANS.
Answering a query on 39 Indians missing from Iraq for the past two years, Sushma Swaraj said she had no confirmation that they had been killed.
