39 Indians killed by ISIS in Mosul, Iraq

New Delhi, Mar 20: Union foreign minister Sushma Swaraj on Tuesday said that 39 Indians stranded in Mosul (Iraq) were killed by ISIS. The minister said this in her statement in the Rajya Sabha

The minister told the Rajya Sabha that their bodies were spotted using deep penetration radar. The bodies were exhumed from mass graves and their identities confirmed by DNA tests, she said.

"The bodies were sent to Baghdad for DNA testing. The DNA of 38 Indians have been matched," she said.

The 39 Indians were kidnapped by ISIS in Mosul in 2014. Until October last year, both India and Iraq had contended that the 39 people were alive. The relatives of the 39 Indians were made to undergo DNA test last year.

All of them were construction workers, mostly from Punjab, and were employed by an Iraqi company in Mosul.