Minister of State General VK Singh will be visiting Iraq on April 1 to bring back the mortal remains of the 39 Indians who were killed in Mosul by the ISIS. General VK Singh will land in India on 2nd April with the mortal remains which will then be handed over to the families. It is reported that the plane carrying the mortal remains will first go to Amritsar, then to Patna and then to Kolkata.
A total of 40 Indians had gone missing in Mosul where one survivor Harjit Masih had claimed to have escaped from the ISIS and the rest had died. However, in absence of evidence, the remaining 39 were not declared dead by Indian government. In her address to the Rajya Sabha earlier this month, External Affairs Ministers Sushma Swaraj had said that the person Harjit Masih had escaped from ISIS under the false identity of Bangladeshi national named Ali with the help of a caterer.
Soon after the announcement in Rajya Sabha, General VK Singh had stated that it would take around 8-10 days to bring back the mortal remains of the nationals as the legal procedures were underway.
Earlier, General VK Singh had led the rescue operations in Yemen where not only about 5,500 Indians but 1,000 foreigners from Asian countries near India were also reportedly rescued by the Indian Navy on humanitarian grounds.
