New Delhi, March 20: Shattering hopes of families that were desperately hoping for the safe return of abducted Indians in Iraq’s Mosul, External Affairs minister Sushma Swaraj on Tuesday told the Parliament that Minister of State General VK Singh will go to Iraq to bring back mortal remains of Indians killed in Iraq.

Swaraj informed that the plane carrying mortal remains will first go to Amritsar, then to Patna and then to Kolkata. Earlier, while speaking in the Rajya Sabha, Swaraj informed that all the 39 Indians abducted by Islamic State in Iraq in 2014 were dead.

In the last year, the government had collected DNA samples from the kin at the suggestion of some parliamentarians and Iraqi authorities as part of a fresh effort to determine their fate. Swaraj on Monday informed that the Ministry got information that DNA samples of 38 people have matched and DNA of the 39th person has matched 70 per cent.

To recall, the deceased men who were mostly workers from Punjab, were snatched from war-ravaged Mosul. The government had classified the men as missing and had said it would continue its search for the men till it received concrete proof of their death.

While speaking in the Parliament, Swaraj said, "Deep penetration radar confirmed that all Indians were dead after all bodies were exhumed”. She added saying that the mortal remains of the persons were sent to Baghdad. "For verification of the bodies, DNA samples of their relatives were sent there. Four state government — Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, West Bengal and Bihar were involved in the process," she added.

In June 2014, the 39 Indians, mostly from Punjab, went missing in Mosul city when it was overrun by the Islamic State (ISIS) terrorist group. After Mosul was freed from the ISIS in July this year, there was hope that the missing Indians will be found. In 2017, the Lok Sabha witness a ruckus over the issue of the 39 Indians missing in Mosul. Swaraj had said that there is no evidence to substantiate the claim that they have died. "And declaring anyone dead without proof is a sin that I won't commit," she had said.

Earlier this month, Minister of State for External Affairs VK Singh had said that the government had completed the DNA testing of the families of 39 Indian workers. "DNA samples, as received from our respective state governments, have been forwarded to the Iraqi authorities for inclusion in their database for matching with the DNA from the human remains being retrieved by them from mass graves. The report of the test is awaited," Singh had said.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Mar 20, 2018 12:25 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).