Prime Minister Narendra Modi expressed grief at the deaths of the 39 Indians who were confirmed dead. On Tuesday, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj informed the Parliament of the deaths of all of the citizens who were abducted in Mosul by Islamic State in 2014.

“Every Indian grieves with those who lost their loved ones in Mosul. We stand in solidarity with the bereaved families and pay our respects to the Indians killed in Mosul,” the PM wrote on Twitter.

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Every Indian grieves with those who lost their loved ones in Mosul. We stand in solidarity with the bereaved families and pay our respects to the Indians killed in Mosul.

— Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) March 20, 2018

PM Modi also praised the efforts of the EAM and the MoS External Affairs VK Singh to trace and safely bring them back.

“The MEA and particularly my colleagues Sushma Swaraj-ji and General VK Singh-ji left no stone unturned in trying to trace and safely bring back those we lost in Mosul,” he wrote adding that the government “remains fully committed towards ensuring the safety of our sisters and brothers overseas”.

The MEA and particularly my colleagues @SushmaSwaraj Ji and @Gen_VKSingh Ji left no stone unturned in trying to trace and safely bring back those we lost in Mosul.

Our Government remains fully committed towards ensuring the safety of our sisters and brothers overseas.

— Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) March 20, 2018

Swaraj said on Tuesday the 39 Indians were killed by the Islamic State but stated that there was no information on how or when they were killed.

Read More: Declaring anyone dead without proof is irresponsible, says Sushma on 39 Indians

She also said that reason behind informing the Parliament before informing the kin of the deceased is because of a procedure to inform the House first.

“The reason why I informed the parliament about the deaths before the families is because procedure dictates that the House is informed first if the session is on,” she said at a press conference held in New Delhi on Tuesday.

Asked why the government took so much time to confirm their deaths, Swaraj said “declaring anyone dead without proof is a sin and irresponsible for any government”.

“It is the responsibility of the government not to declare anyone dead till evidence confirms the same. This government doesn’t believe in ‘missing believed to be killed’,” she said.

The EAM said that bodies were not found among lakhs as was being claimed but in a mound near Mosul.

“These bodies were not found in mass graves but in a mound. A man informed Singh that many bodies were buried in a mound in Badush,” she said adding that India then asked Iraq to use deep penetration radar to confirm the man’s claim.

Badush is a village located northwest of Mosul. Following confirmation, the bodies were exhumed and sent for DNA confirmation.

“There were exactly 39 bodies. Some of them had long hairs and we recovered a kada – indicating that the bodies were of the Sikhs in the group,” Swaraj said.

Read More: Bodies of 39 Indians killed in Iraq will be brought back in special aircraft: Swaraj

Martyrs Foundation, an Iraqi government body dealing with people killed in the fight against the IS which had been given DNA samples of the family members of the Indians, confirmed that 38 of them matched completely. There was one body – that of Raju Yadav from Bihar – whose DNA matched 70 per cent because his parents were no more and the DNA supplied was of a relative.