Release hopes rise as Iraqi Army recovers

NEW DELHI: Even as the government on Wednesday said the 46 Indian nurses trapped in a building in Iraq's wartorn Tikrit town were safe and unharmed, it is apprehensive of the political demands that the ISIS might make for the release of kidnapped nationals in Mosul with reports of such demands being made for freeing other nationalities by the jihadists.

The Indian Ambassador to Iraq Ajay Kumar has spoken to the nurses stranded in a hospital complex in Tikrit and said they are safe, according to MEA spokesperson Syed Akbaruddin. He, however, refused to comment on reports that the building which houses the nurses was being guarded by ISIS men.

The government had said on Tuesday that there was bombing and firing in the vicinity of the building where the 46 nurses had taken refuge in the basement. Official sources had told ET earlier that the Iraqi military helicopters had tried to rescue the nurses on Monday but wasn't successful.

Sources hoped that the nurses could be taken out of Tikrit soon. Iraqi Army has made some gains in Tikrit against the ISIS. However, Delhi is apprehensive whether ISIS could make political demands for the release of the kidnapped Indians from Mosul after reports surfaced that they had made such demands for other nationalities, including Turkish-kept hostage by the jihadists in Iraq.

There's also discomfort over the statement of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the commander of the ISIS, who has vowed war against many countries, including India, which he says have been violating Muslims’ rights.

Baghdadi, in a speech released on Tuesday, said that Muslims' rights were being violated in India, China, Palestine, Somalia, the Arabian Peninsula, the Caucasus, Sham (the Levant), the Philippines, Ahvaz, Iran, Pakistan, Egypt, Iraq, Indonesia, Afghanistan, Tunisia, Libya, Algeria and Morocco.