Indians killed in Iraq: Centre misled nation, Salman Khurshid indicates

New Delhi [India], Mar. 21 (ANI): Suggesting that the Centre misled the nation regarding the killing of 39 Indians by Islamic State (IS), former Union minister and senior Congress leader Salman Khurshid on Tuesday blamed the external affairs ministry and said they took too long to confirm the same.

"It is tragic. To an extent what external affairs minister is saying is understandable, what is difficult to understand is inability all these days to have ascertained the truth and to have in sense misled people of India about how terrible the truth was," the former external affairs minister said.

Khurshid also appealed not to make it a political slugfest and everyone should participate in grieving the dead.

On March 20, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj, in the Rajya Sabha, said all the 39 Indians, who went missing in Mosul in 2014, had been killed by the IS.

Swaraj said Minister of State (MoS) External Affairs General V.K. Singh will go to Mosul in Iraq to bring back the mortal remains of the deceased.

The victims, most of whom hailed from Punjab, were working on projects near Mosul when they were kidnapped during their evacuation. (ANI)

This story has not been edited. It has been published as provided by ANI