Mortal remains of 38 Indians killed in Iraq arrives in India by special aircraft; relatives distraught

Amritsar: A special aircraft carrying the mortal remains of 38 Indians killed in Iraq arrived at the Amritsar International Airport on from Baghdad on Monday around 2:30 pm.

Punjab: Mortal remains of the 38 Indians who were killed in Iraq, brought to Amritsar pic.twitter.com/ALGLHvZ67S — ANI (@ANI) April 2, 2018

कुछ ज़िम्मेदारियों का बोझ काफी ज्यादा होता है। #RestInPeaceMyFellowIndians pic.twitter.com/7cyKDOySvY — Vijay Kumar Singh (@Gen_VKSingh) April 2, 2018

The presumed remains of one of those killed were yet to be positively identified, PTI reported.

The news agency also reported that relatives of the deceased received the bodies with teary eyes in Amritsar on Monday and an air of gloom descended as distraught families looked at the caskets.

A group of 40 Indian workers, mostly from Punjab, were taken hostage by ISIS when it overran Iraq's second largest city Mosul in 2014. One of them escaped by posing as a Muslim from Bangladesh, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj had said in a statement in Rajya Sabha. The other 39 are dead and their bodies have been recovered, she had added. 

The EAM had further said that the bodies of the slain Indians were recovered from Badosh, a village northwest of Mosul and their identities had been established through DNA testing.

Minister of State for External Affairs VK Singh had left for Iraq on Sunday to bring back the mortal remains of the Indians. While the remains of the 31 men belonging to Punjab and Himachal Pradesh were received at the Sri Guru Ram Das Jee International Airport in Amritsar, the rest of the bodies were flown to their respective places in Patna and Kolkata.

Out of these, 27 belonged to Punjab while four hailed from Himachal Pradesh.

(With PTI inputs)