All 39 Indian held hostages in Iraq by ISIS alive: Sushma Swaraj

NEW DELHI: All the 39 Indians held hostage in Iraq by ISIS militants for nearly a year are "alive", External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj told the families of the victims today.

Swaraj, who met the families for the seventh time since the abduction of the Indians in June last year from Mosul, reassured the families about the well-being of the nationals on the basis of information received from various sources.

The government was making all sincere efforts for the safe and early release of the Indian workers, she told them.

"Earlier we had six sources we told us that the Indians are alive. Now we have two more sources to corroborate the same. Out of these two, one is so solidly reliable that there is no question of not believing. They have very clearly said that all the 39 Indian are alive," Swaraj said after meeting the families of the hostages.

The ministry said Swaraj had earlier personally spoken to her counterpart Foreign Ministers in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) as well as other friendly countries in the region for their assistance in the safe release of Indians in captivity.

The minister also assured them that as soon as some concrete proof on the well-being of the workers is received by the government, it would be shared with the families.

Minister of Food Processing Harsimrat Kaur Badal was also present during the meeting.

Meanwhile, Harjeet Masih (26), the lone Indian who escaped from the clutches of ISIS militants in Iraq, continued to maintain that all 39 Indians held hostage by ISIS militants had been "shot dead".

"I witnessed the killings of all my Indian co-workers. ISIS militants kidnapped us and took us to another place. We were 40 Indians and about 50 Bangladeshis. They assured us that our passports would come and we will be allowed to leave for India.

"They handed us over to another ISIS group who took us to a hilly region. They fired indiscriminately on us. I was shot in the leg...I kept lying there and later escaped. There is a possibility that someone else could have also survived," Masih, who was working for a construction company in Iraq, claimed while addressing a press conference in Mohali.

The Indian nationals were taken hostage by the ISIS on June 11 last year in northern Iraq's Mosul town.

Masih's family resides in Kala Afghana village of Punjab's Gurdaspur district.