Chandigarh: Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh Tuesday said he was “shattered at the heart-wrenching news” that 39 Indians, kidnapped by Daesh, had been killed in Iraq.
His Congress colleague Partap Singh Bajwa and Aam Aadmi Party’s Kanwar Sandhu also expressed their grief and targeted External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj for misleading the families of those who had died.
Sandhu also sought the minister’s resignation.
Swaraj on Tuesday said 39 Indians, who were abducted by Daesh in Iraq nearly three years back, were killed and their bodies recovered.
Forty Indians were abducted by the terrorist organisation in June 2015 from Mosul, Iraq, but one of them escaped by posing as a Muslim from Bangladesh, Swaraj said in a statement in the Rajya Sabha.
“Shattered at the heart-wrenching news from @SushmaSwaraj that the 39 Indians missing in Iraq, most of whom were Punjabis, are dead. My heart goes out to the families who had been living in hope since their reported abduction by ISIS [Deash] in 2014. Prayers with all of them,” Amarinder Singh said on Twitter.
Congress leader and Rajya Sabha member Bajwa said he was saddened by the news confirming the deaths of those missing in Iraq and his thoughts and prayers are with their families.
“Why did Sushma Swaraj mislead the families for more than 3 years. This is complete failure of MEA & GOI [Ministry of External Affairs and Government of India],” he tweeted.
“I raised this issue many a times in Rajya Sabha that why is the government playing with emotions of families by giving them false hopes. Can there be anything more shameful than this?” Bajwa added.
He appealed to both federal and Punjab governments to provide all possible help and financial aid to the families.
AAP leader and Kharar MLA Kanwar Sandhu demanded the resignation of the union minister.
“Sushma Swaraj should resign as external affairs minister taking responsibility for the lies she spread about the 39 missing Indians in Iraq,” Sandhu said in a tweet.
