Bodies of Indians killed by ISIS reach Amritsar; Sidhu announces ex-gratia

Bodies of Indians killed by ISIS in Mosul to arrive in India today:

Punjab Minister Navjot Singh Sidhu on Monday announced ex-gratia of Rs 500,000 for the next kin of the 27 Indians belonging from Punjab, who was killed in Iraq's Mosul.

The mortal remains of 38 Indians, out of 39, killed the Islamic State (ISIS) in Iraq arrived at the Amritsar International Airport on Monday, officials confirmed.

A special aircraft landed at Amritsar from Baghdad around 2.30 pm, according to the report.

Minister of State for External Affairs V K Singh left for Mosul earlier to bring back the bodies of the deceased Indians. Singh informed that the mortal remains of only 38 Indians would be brought back to the country because one case remained pending. MoS Singh also said that the Centre would hand over the coffins of the deceased to their kin, with evidence -- so that their relatives had no doubts.

39 Indians abducted in Iraq's Mosul dead; compensate, says Cong: Updates

All the 39 Indians who were abducted by ISIS in Iraq nearly three years ago were killed, and their bodies had been recovered, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj said on Tuesday. Minister of State for External Affairs V K Singh will be flying to Iraq to bring back their mortal remains to India on a special flight.

As many as 40 Indians were originally abducted by the terrorist organisation ISIS in June 2014 from Mosul in Iraq but one of them escaped by posing as a Muslim from Bangladesh, Swaraj said in a suo motu statement in the Rajya Sabha. The remaining 39 Indians were taken to Badoosh and killed.


Search operations led to a mound in Badoosh where locals said some bodies were buried by the ISIS. Deep penetration radars were used to establish that the mound indeed was a mass grave, Swaraj said, adding that the Indian authorities requested their Iraqi counterparts to exhume the bodies.

Swaraj said the mass grave had exactly 39 bodies, with distinctive features like long hair, non-Iraqi shoes, and IDs. The bodies were then sent to Baghdad for DNA testing.