Union Minister of State for External Affairs VK Singh will on Monday return from Iraq along with the mortal remains of 38 Indians killed in Mosul by the Islamic State terrorists.
Though 39 Indians were killed as the Islamic State took over the city of Mosul in 2014, the identification of one body is still pending.
The Minister is expected to return with the bodies by late evening.
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According to reports, he will first travel to Amritsar in Punjab to hand over 27 bodies, the maximum, to their families. He will then head to Patna in Bihar and West Bengal.
The union minister had left for Mosul on Sunday afternoon.
External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj had informed Parliament on March 20 that all 39 Indian construction workers kidnapped in 2014 from Mosul have been killed.
The Minister had earlier said that she will not consider them dead unless there was proof in this regard, rejecting lone survivor Harjit Masih’s claim that the 39 Indians taken captive by the Islamic State were shot dead.
The Minister had said that the DNA samples collected from the missing Indians’ relatives matched with 38 bodies, while the identity of the 39th body was yet to be fully confirmed since the DNA sample sent was from someone else in his family as both his parents are dead.
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