Names of 39 Indians confirmed dead in Iraq

Of the 39 Indians whose killings in Iraq were confirmed by External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj here on Tuesday, 27 were from Punjab, four from Himachal Pradesh, six from Bihar and two from West Bengal.

According to the External Affairs Ministry, those from Punjab were Dharminder Kumar, Harish Kumar, Harsimranjeet Singh, Kanwaljit Singh, Malkit Singh, Ranjit Singh, Sonu, Sandeep Kumar, Manjinder Singh, Gurcharan Singh, Balwant Rai, Roop Lal, Devinder Singh, Kulwinder Singh, Jatinder Singh, Nishan Singh, Gurdeep Singh, Kamaljit Singh, Gobinder Singh, Pritpal Sharma, Sukhwinder Singh, Jasvir Singh, Parvinder Kumar, Balvir Chand, Surjeet Mainka, Nand Lal and Rakesh Kumar.

Those from Himachal Pradesh were Aman Kumar, Sandeep Singh Rana, Inderjeet and Hem Raj.

While Samar Tikadar and Khokhan Sikder hailed from West Bengal, Santosh Kumar Singh, Bidya Bhushan Tiwari, Adalat Singh, Sunil Kumar Kushwaha, Dharamendra Kumar and Raju Kumar Yadav were from Bihar.

Except for Raju Kumar Yadav, the bodies of all others have been identified through DNA samples.

Sushma Swaraj told the media here that Yadav's body was only 70 per cent identified and that could be because the DNA sample sent was from some other member of his family as his parents were not alive.

All these Indian workers had gone missing after the Islamic State overran the Iraqi city of Mosul in June 2014.

--IANS

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