27 December 2017•Update: 27 December 2017
AMRITSAR, India
For Gurpinder Kaur and her parents each day ends with the wait for Manjinder Singh -- who went missing in Iraq since 2014.
Singh had called home in June 2014, to inform the family that he and his co-workers were being taken to Erbil city in northern Iraq.
That was the last they heard from him.
“Our day ends thinking about him with the hope that he is still alive and he would call us soon,” Kaur, whose brother is missing, told Anadolu Agency.
Singh is among the 39 Indian employees of a construction firm, who are believed to have been abducted by Daesh militants in Mosul, Iraq in 2014.
In July, Iraqi forces, backed by a U.S.-led coalition, defeated the Daesh terrorist organization in Mosul.
Earlier this month, the Indian government completed collecting DNA samples of the families of the missing persons.
Local media had reported in October that the samples would be sent to Iraq and Syria to be matched with the people captured from Daesh-liberated areas, as well as bodies recovered during operations.
Among the 40 Indian nationals believed to have been abducted 25 belong to the northern state of Punjab.
One of them, Harjeet Masih, claims he escaped from captivity and returned to India.
The militants shot dead the rest of the abductees, he says, a claim the Indian government denies.
Indian External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj had said this July that the government will not end the search for the missing citizens until it has “proof they are not alive”.
Kaur is not satisfied with the government response and has even considered traveling to Iraq in the search for her brother.
“I contacted some locals in Iraq to inquire about the security situation. I was advised against traveling to the country as even the locals find it difficult to move around freely,” she said.
Pappu Kumar Singh, a resident of Bihar, says his family keeps track of the newspapers and news channels for information about his elder brother Santosh Kumar, who was working in Iraq since 2011 and is now missing.
“I have traveled more than five times to New Delhi to meet officials of the Indian External Affairs Ministry, but to no avail,” he said.
Raman Kumar, from Kangra district of northern Himachal Pradesh state, said: “There is no information from the government’s side. We are confused as to what to do next.”
Kumar’s brother Aman Kumar is missing.
Rights activists reiterate the stance of the victims.
Colin Gonsalves, a senior Supreme Court lawyer and founder of Human Rights Law Network (HRLN), said: “The government of India can do many things because it is a powerful government. For legal aid the families can approach the High Court or the Supreme Court.”
Renowned rights activist John Dayal said: “The government of India is the protector of the Indian workers abroad. We understand the area (Iraq) has seen much bloodshed and it is a difficult place, but the government has to get information about the missing people. There has to be closure of the case in one-way or the other because the families are still waiting.”
Anadolu Agency sent a query to the Indian Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Raveesh Kumar regarding the status of the case. He replied that he had previously briefed the media on the case.
In late October, Kumar had said during a weekly media briefing: “On the issue regarding missing Indians, some of you may be aware about the ongoing visit of our Minister of State for External Affairs V. K. Singh to Iraq.
“You are also aware about the circumstances under which we had sought DNA samples from the next of the kin of the missing Indian nationals. He has met a range of people in Iraq to get an update on the 39 missing Indians in Iraq.”
