New Delhi: Minister of State for External Affairs Gen. (retd.) V.K. Singh on Sunday left for Iraq to bring back the mortal remains of the 38 Indians who were confirmed to have been killed in the war-torn country.
In order to conclusively verify the identity of the body suspected to be that of the 39th missing Indian in Iraq — Raju Kumar Yadav from Bihar— the Government had recently sent a second DNA sample of Yadav’s brother to the Iraqi Capital Baghdad. The Government had last month confirmed the deaths of 38 of Yadav’s co-workers who were massacred earlier by terror group ISIS near the Iraqi city of Mosul when it was under ISIS occupation.
“The Minister left at around 1 pm from the Hindon airbase and is expected to return with the bodies on Monday,” a Government official was quoted by news agencies as saying. According to reports, the MoS is expected to bring back the bodies by tomorrow.
Gen. (retd.) Singh will bring back the mortal remains in a special plane. The first stop on the way back would be Amritsar where 27 bodies of those from Punjab and four from Himachal Pradesh would be handed over to the relatives. The aircraft will then travel to Patna and then to Kolkata.
