The Indian government has received information about the location of 40 Indian construction workers abducted in strife-torn northern Iraq, external affairs ministry spokesperson Syed Akbaruddin said on Friday.
“The information conveyed to us about the abducted people has been reaffirmed… There is no safety in captivity. We do have an understanding of the location (of the workers). Given that the matter is underway, at this stage, I will not be able to share details of their location and what Iraqi authorities have shared with us,” Akbardudin told a press gathering.
External affairs minister Sushma Swaraj earlier said the government would leave no stone unturned to free the Indian workers being held in the Iraqi city of Mosul.
“In New Delhi, the crisis management group met twice and the meetings were chaired by external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj. She spoke to the Punjab chief minister, the Kerala chief minister… Senior-most members of the ministry are handling the situation,” Akbaruddin said.
Reacting to a question about the course of action of the foreign ministry, he said: “Documentation for Indian national is never an issue. They can contact us.
We received 130 calls today (Friday) on our helpline. More than 50 of those were to seek information about relatives in Iraq. Forty of them wanted evacuation help. We are assisting them.”
The external affairs ministry announced on Wednesday that the 40 workers had been abducted in recent days in the Iraqi city of Mosul, which Sunni militants have overrun in a deadly ongoing insurgency. The ministry said no demands for ransom had been made.
Militants from the Islamic State in Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS) have taken over vast swathes of territory as they advance on Baghdad, amid fears that the country could fall apart.
With details of the abduction sketchy, other families said they feared for the fate of the workers, who had been earning money on construction projects to send back home.
“We are hearing all sorts of news from Iraq, visuals on the television are frightening and we are very worried about him,” Ranjit Kaur told the Hindustan Times of her son Jatinder Singh.
Parkash Singh Badal–chief minister of Punjab, where most of the workers come from–said “we are ready to bear all the expenses for bringing them back.”
Humanitarian agencies and the Iraqi government have confirmed the abduction of the workers, who were employed by the Tariq Noor Al Huda construction company, the ministry said.
About 10,000 Indian nationals are currently in Iraq with some 100 caught in violence-hit areas, the ministry added.
