39 Indians missing in Iraq: Congress accuses Centre of zero efforts

Accusing the government of making "zero" efforts in bringing back the 39 Indians abducted by the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) three years ago from Iran's Mosul city, the Congress Party on Monday asked Prime Minister Narendra Modi's "net result" for all his middle-east visits.

Speaking to ANI in Bengaluru, Congress leader N A Harris said somewhere the Indian government has failed miserably to help the stranded Indians.

"It's is been pending for more than six months and I don't understand what our government is doing, because the innocent people who are under ISIS, their families will be in difficult situation. The efforts from our country are zero. The Prime Minister also went to Middle East and what is the net result?," he said.

Putting the onus on the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA), Harris added that the Centre is not able to function or has failed to figure out its priority.

"If the Indians are in problem and if the Indian government will not help them then who will help them?" he said.

The Iraq Embassy on Sunday informed India that search operations are underway to locate the 39 missing Indians who were taken as prisoners by ISIS in 2014, further assuring there is a high level coordination between Iraqi and Indian concerned authorities to locate them.

The Government of India has already sent two high-level senior delegations to Iraq to follow up on this matter.

However, Iraqi Ambassador to India Fakhri H Al-Issa had said that the Embassy has no information about the missing 39 Indians citizens.

"I don't want to say anything. I have no information. Sometimes no news is good news. They might be in Badush prison," Issa said.

Sushma Swaraj, along with Minister of State (MoS) for MEA M J Akbar and MoS MEA Gen (Retd) V K Singh, met families of 39 Indians who are missing in Iraq since 2014 on July 16.

Swaraj had assured, "Once fighting stops in Badush and the area is cleared, we can probably find out about the whereabouts of the missing nationals."