NEW DELHI (TIP): Congress members from Punjab on March 22 gave a breach of privilege notice in the Rajya Sabha against External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and her colleague MoS VK Singh, accusing them of “deliberately misleading Parliament and the country on the status of 39 Indians who went missing in Iraq in 2014”, repoted The Tribune.

Moving the notice, MPs Ambika Soni, Shamsher Singh Dullo and Partap Singh Bajwa said, “The External Affairs Minister and her colleague VK Singh deliberately misled families of 39 individuals who were slain in Mosul. For a period spanning between June 2014 and March 2018, the minister continued to state as a matter of fact that the individuals are not only alive, but that the government is also undertaking steps for their rescue. As such claims were made on the floor of Parliament and outside, this is a serious breach of Parliament privilege and a stringent action must be taken against the members for their gross acts of dereliction of public duty.”

The Congress leaders said the government actively worked to conceal the truth from the families of those killed in Iraq. The trio said the information about the death of slain Indians came out at least seven months ago, but the government still did not disclose that. “It is a tragic and inexcusable breach of duty that the External Affairs Minister, being in possession of this information (of the killing of Indians), failed to share the same with the grieving families. In fact, it is now clear that the only reason the government has disclosed the information now is compulsion because the Iraqi government would have otherwise done so,” they said.

Bajwa said, “It is also sad that Swaraj waited to come to Parliament to make the tragic announcement on March 20 when she knew it already. This could have been made known outside Parliament.”

On March 20, Swaraj said that the 39 missing Indians in Iraq have been killed. She was speaking in Rajya Sabha. Forty Indians, mostly from Punjab, were originally abducted by terrorist organisation Islamic State from Mosul, Iraq. One of them escaped by posing as a Muslim from Bangladesh, Swaraj said in a statement in Rajya Sabha at 11 am, as soon as the House convened. The remaining 39 Indians were taken to Badoosh and killed. Swaraj said 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, she said, adding the Indian authorities requested their Iraqi counterpart to exhume the bodies.

The external affairs minister added that 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.DNA testing by Martyrs Foundation has established identity of 38 Indians while there has been 70 per cent matching of the DNA for the 39th person, she said. Minister of State for External Affairs V K Singh will be flying to Iraq to bring back the bodies on a special flight.