Sushma Swaraj lambasts Congress for creating ruckus in Lok Sabha

External Affairs Minister (EAM) Sushma Swaraj on Tuesday lambasted the Congress party for creating a ruckus in the Lok Sabha when she was speaking on the issue of 39 Indians killed in Iraq's Mosul.

While addressing the media, Swaraj said, "In Rajya Sabha, everyone listened to me very patiently and peacefully. Everyone paid tribute, I thought same would happen in Lok Sabha. But unlike the past few days of ruckus, today Congress led the protests under Jyotiraditya Scindia," adding, "It was very unfortunate."

The EAM further said that Congress is doing a very low level of politics and it has crossed all limits in the Lok Sabha today.

Earlier in the day, Swaraj said that Minister of State (MoS) External Affairs General V.K. Singh will go to Mosul in Iraq to bring back the mortal remains of the 39 Indian nationals killed there.

While speaking at the Rajya Sabha, Swaraj explained that the plane carrying the mortal remains will first go to Amritsar, then to Patna and Kolkata.

The EAM had confirmed in the Rajya Sabha that all the 39 Indians, who went missing in Mosul in the year 2014, were killed by the Islamic State (IS).

She further said that the mortal remains were sent to Baghdad. For verification of bodies, DNA samples of the deceased relatives were sent in the Iraqi capital.

"We used a deep penetration satellite to see a mass grave. It had exactly 39 bodies with distinctive features like long hair, non-Iraqi shoes, and IDs. We requested that the bodies be brought out exhumed. This confirmed the death of all 39 Indian nationals," Swaraj informed.

She further said that the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) had got information that DNA samples of 38 people have matched and the DNA of the one person has matched only 70 percent.

The 39 persons, most of whom hailed from Punjab, were working on projects near Mosul when they were kidnapped during their evacuation.