New Delhi: India is ready to talk with the kidnapper of 40 Indian workers in Iraq to release them.
Senior officials revealed that former Indian ambassador to Iraq Suresh Reddy had reached Baghdad this morning and will lead negotiations for India once contact is established with the abductors.
Syed Akbaruddin, Spokesperson of External Affairs Ministry said, “We have been told by the foreign ministry of Iraq that they have been able to determine the location where these abducted Indian nationals are being held captive.”
Akbaruddin refused to disclose the location shared by Iraq amid fears that any move that may panic the abductors — militants with the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria — could jeopardise the safety of the hostages.
But a senior Indian official and an Iraqi diplomat independently told this newspaper that Baghdad’s intelligence suggested the Indian workers were being held at a government building — described by one of them as a warehouse — on the outskirts of Mosul.
Both these officials and the Iraqi Red Crescent — a part of the global Red Cross movement — which is leading the search for the kidnapped men cautioned, however, that any location can be confirmed only after they speak with the workers and their abductors.
Iraqi official said, “This is a fluid situation, and this intelligence has been gathered in the midst of a civil war.”
Iraq has told India that the militants holding the Indians are also holding a few Turkish workers at the same location. Iraq, India and Turkey are jointly working on their strategy to get the men released, officials said.
India has also been speaking with the US, Russia, Iran and Israel for any intelligence inputs. In particular, India has asked the US to take into account its citizens and their safety in any military attack it launches to tackle the ISIS, a Sunni militant group that splintered from al Qaida earlier this year.
In Delhi, foreign minister Sushma Swaraj and her officials offered distinct messages to their clearly different audiences as the Narendra Modi government grappled with its first foreign policy crisis.
Asked about conversations that some of the kidnapped men have had with family members, in which they have reportedly told the relatives they were safe, the foreign ministry was sharp in its retort.
A senior official said, “These are tricky times, where you need to keep family members updated and calm, yet appear strong and determined to the world you are negotiating with.”
A total of about 10,000 Indians are estimated to be in Iraq, with just over 100 believed to be in the region between Mosul and Tikrit, close to Baghdad, where the ISIS has seized control.
Indian officials are worried that any fresh violence between the militants and the Iraqi force near Mosul, and even hints of American aerial attacks could jeopardise attempts to rescue the workers.
Indian officials said that the abductors have not sought any ransom nor made any other demand yet in exchange for releasing the Indian workers. But fear for their own safety may make the abductors shift their location. The militants may in fact already have shifted their location twice since they captured the Indian and Turkish nationals.
The president of Iraq’s Red Crescent Society Yaseen Ahmad Abbas said, “I’m really sorry, but no one can be absolutely sure where the abductors and the Indian workers are right now.”
Bureau Report
Leave a Reply