New Delhi: India on Thursday claimed that all its nationals taken hostage by the Isil militants in Iraqi city Mosul are safe. According to foreign office, it also has knowledge about location where the 40 Indian construction workers, mostly belonging to the northern state Punjab, are being kept. “The Iraqi foreign ministry has told us that they found the location of the workers,” foreign office spokesperson Syed Akbaruddin said, adding that workers of other nationalities were also held captive by the Isil militants. He, however, refused to reveal further details saying the matter was highly sensitive. “Our embassy in Baghdad is following up with the Iraqi ministry. There are several meetings that are planned between Indian ministry and Iraqi embassy. We do have an understanding of the location but I will not be able to tell the location as of now,” Akbaruddin added.
Earlier, foreign minister Sushma Swaraj said that all efforts were underway to secure safe release of the Indian hostages which has emerged as the biggest diplomatic challenge for the newly installed Narendra Modi government that took office on May 26 following a thumping victory of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
“We are doing all that a government should do. I am personally supervising the efforts. I will leave no stone unturned in keeping our countrymen safe,” Swaraj told media in a brief interaction outside her South Block office.
She, however, refused to respond to a question if New Delhi ready to negotiate safe release of the 40 Indian hostages who were employed with Tariq Noor al-Huda construction company located in Iraqi town Mosul.
Interestingly, Punjab’s ruling Shiromani Akali Dal which is a junior partner in the Modi government has offered to pay ransom to secure release of those abducted by the Isil militants even before any ransom demands were made.
Punjab chief minister Parkash Singh Badal surprised everyone by saying that his government was ready to pay the ransom money. He received a curt response with the foreign office saying that there was no question of paying ransom to bring back Indians from Iraq or that state governments are not supposed to interfere directly in such delicate issues.
India had decided not to negotiate release of its nationals held captive by militants after December 1999 hijacking of a Kathmandu-New Delhi flight by Pakistani militants. Its decision to release three dreaded Harkat-ul-Muhahideen militants Maulana Masood Azhar, Mushtaq Ahmad Zargar and Ahmad Omar Seed Shaikh in exchange of 177 surviving passengers and 15 crew members raised a national outcry leading to formulation of no negotiation policy.
Modi government, facing its first acid test, has activated both official and backdoor channels to ensure safe release of the 40 hostages who are part of nearly 10,000-strong Indian workforce currently working in Iraq mainly in oil, construction and health care sectors.
While heavily dependent upon the Iraqi Red Crescent Society to ensure release and evacuation of all trapped Indians, New Delhi has already sent retired diplomat Suresh Reddy who worked in the past as its ambassador to Iraq as its special envoy. Reddy has good contacts there. He is supposed to interact with the Iraqi government, influential persons and institutions that can help security safe release of the Indian hostages.
