Five IS militants killed in airstrikes in Iraq
Five Islamic State (IS) militants were killed in airstrikes in the northern Iraqi province of Kirkuk, the Iraqi military said on Saturday.
Minister of State for External Affairs VK Singh on Monday said he would visit Iraq to bring the mortal remains of the 39 Indians killed by the Islamic State after completion of all the formalities for the repatriation of bodies.
Talking to reporters on the sidelines of a function, Singh, who is a former army chief, said the Indian Embassy was in the process of finalising all the documents.
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Once all the formalities are completed, Singh would be flying to Iraq in a special aircraft to bring the bodies back to India.
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Indian Ambassador to Iraq Pradeep Singh Purohit and his team of officials were working tirelessly to complete the formalities.
Of the 39 Indians confirmed dead by External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj last week, 27 were from Punjab, four from Himachal Pradesh, six from Bihar and two from West Bengal.
The bodies of the Indians were recently exhumed from a mass grave in Iraq’s Badush, nearly four years after they were kidnapped by the Islamic State.
The remains of 38 of the victims matched with the DNA samples from their families. The DNA of one person, said to be Raju Yadav from Bihar, matched 70 per cent with that of his relatives as he did not have parents.
Singh said the ‘second batch’ of DNA sample from Yadav’s brother had been sent from Patna to the Iraq-based NGO Martyrs Foundation for confirming his identity.
His mortal remains would be handed over to the Indian authorities only after 98 per cent match of the DNA sample was ascertained as per the rules in Iraq, the minister added.
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