39 Indians missing in Iraq: ‘Don’t keep us in the dark any longer… tell us the truth, whatever it is’

FAMILIES: Khokon’s wife Namita, 40, children Rita and Abhro, 17 and 16, mother Shubh Rani Sikdar, 85; Samar’s wife Dipali, 35, daughter Sharmishtha, 8; respectively in Ilsamari and Madhupur Elangi villages of Nadia, West Bengal

LAST CONVERSATION: June 15, 2014. Khokon told his family that IS militants had abducted him and urged them to stay strong. Samar told his wife, “I don’t know what will happen, they are coming now,” and hurriedly said goodbye.

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LAST CONTACT WITH GOVERNMENT: From the Centre, the only communication has been a letter confirming the receipt of their “grievance”. “Families from Punjab have gone and met the minister in Delhi. No one has even asked us,” said Namita Sikdar. “We approached the state BJP and the chief minister. BJP leaders promised to convey our grievance to Delhi but nothing came of it. Mamata Banerjee directed us to the chief secretary but again, nothing came of it.”

Samar Tikadar (L), Khokon Sikdar

Khokon and Samar had met in Iraq and become friends. Back home, their wives draw solace from each other. “After my husband disappeared, I got in touch with Dipali and realised everyone on the construction site had gone missing,” Namita said. “I tried getting in touch with authorities here in Nadia district, in Kolkata and wrote to Delhi. That has been my routine for the last two years. Every morning when I wake up and put sindoor on my forehead, I pray he’s alive.”

Shubh Rani Sikdar weeps at any mention of Khokon, her son, and greets every visitor with the same question, “Have you heard from my son?” Namita’s family survives on what relatives give them. Dipali works almost 14 hours a day, tying beedis to earn a total of Rs 100. “In Iraq, they used to save all the money they earned. Now there’s no money,” said Dipali.

‘Why would govt lie for 2 years… but they should show proof’

Kulwinder Singh, 30
Worked as a carpenter in Iraq

FAMILY: Wife Amandeep, 30, 10-year-old twins (boy and girl), mother Shimbo at Khan-Ke-Fatehgarh in Jalandhar, Punjab

LAST CONVERSATION: With his mother on June 15, 2014. She was travelling in a bus and the connection was weak. Kulwinder called up his brother in-law in Hoshiarpur and told him that he had been abducted.

LAST CONTACT WITH GOVERNMENT: “I have been going to Delhi to meet Sushma Swaraj for the past two years and she always tells me to have faith in her,” Shimbo said. “Why would the government lie for two years… but the government should show us some proof that they are well. If the government’s own sons were there, they would not have delayed it for so long. We are still where we were in June 2014.”

Shimbo, who is in her early fifties, works as a domestic help and stitches a football or two at home, earning Rs 700 to 800 a month. The government gives them Rs 20,000 monthly aid, while Amandeep earns from occasional work at people’s homes.

“My son went abroad so that I could stop working in people’s houses. Now God has show me this day,” Shimbo said. She did stop working after Kulwinder left in 2013 and sent around Rs 70,000 in instalments, she said, but had to resume after he went missing.

‘Stop making promises, bring them back’

Balwant Rai, 55
Construction worker in Iraq

FAMILY: Wife Gian Kaur, a married daughter and sons Rakesh and Pawan, 21, at Dhadda village of Jalandhar, Punjab

LAST CONVERSATION: June 17, 2014. “He told me they had been kidnapped but would be sent back to Punjab soon. After than there has been no communication, only waiting,” Gian Kaur said. “While we were talking I heard blast-like sounds on the phone but he told me this was common there.”

LAST CONTACT WITH GOVERNMENT: In February. “Instead of making promises, she [Sushma Swaraj] should bring the men back to their families. I believe Sushma, not Harjit Masih [the one hostage who returned and said the others had likely been killed] but she too should understand what we are going through,” Gian Kaur said, sitting in her two-room house.

Rakesh had gone to Saudi Arab a few months ago hoping to get some information about the kidnapped men from Saudi-based travel agents. Gian Kaur stitches footballs to “pass her time”.

‘Want to know on what basis govt says they’re alive’

Harsimranjit Singh, 23
Used to drive mixers at a construction site in Iraq

FAMILY: Parents Harbhajan Kaur and Tarsem Singh, both around 65, in Babowal, Amritsar

LAST CONVERSATION: “He called the last time on June 15. It was around 3 pm. By then the news had come out that 40 men had been abducted. He said, ‘Mummy, the men are saying we will take you to a safe place. They look educated, and they have told us their quarrel is not with India or Indians, but with the Iraqis. I don’t think they are going to kill us. If they wanted to kill us, they would have done that immediately’.”

LAST CONTACT WITH GOVERNMENT: “We met Sushma Swaraj in February. She told us ‘Mundey theek thak ne’, and that the IS is probably using them as labourers. This is what she tells us every time we meet her. We have gone to meet her maybe 9 or 10 times. You can lie once, but you can’t lie 10 times. I do believe her, but we want to know on what basis she is telling us they are alive. The government must show us some proof. Sushma says be patient… We keep our faith that he is alive — it cannot be otherwise. There can be no bad news about my son,” said Harbhajan Kaur.

‘He didn’t come home even once, was saving to build a house’

Roop Lal, 40
Went to Iraq as a construction worker

FAMILY: Wife Kamaljeet, 35, and sons Saurav and Karan at Bath Kalan village in Jalandhar, Punjab. “My brother in-law and seven sisters-in-law wanted to throw us out of this house but villagers supported me, because of which I have this small room.”

LAST CONVERSATION: On June 15, 2014, when he told her the abductors were about to take him away along with other hostages and snatch their phones.

LAST CONTACT WITH GOVERNMENT: In February, when several families met External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj. “I want a clear-cut picture from Sushma Swaraj. Sanu lare na laan (Don’t keep us in the dark, tell us the truth whatever it is),” said Kamaljeet.

“My husband had gone to Iraq seven years ago and did not return even once as he wanted to save enough so that we could build our own house,” she said. “Now I work in households; the government’s monthly aid of Rs 20,000 too is a big help.”

They wish Himachal would give aid the way Punjab does

Sandeep Singh, 38
Worked as machine operator

FAMILY: Wife Chandresh Kumari, 30, children Pulkit and Ruderansh, 8 and 4, Sandeep’s parents Dilawar Singh and Pushpa Devi, 78 and 64, at Dhameta village in Kangra, Himachal Pradesh

LAST CONVERSATION: June 15, 2014, the day the hostages’ mobiles were reportedly snatched. Sandeep Singh told his wife to look after the children.

LAST CONTACT WITH GOVERNMENT: In February, along with families of other men who have gome missing. Do they believe Sushma Swaraj’s assurances? “Yes I believe her,” said Chandresh.

“The adjoining state of Punjab has been giving financial assistance of Rs 20,000 per month to the families of Indians gone missing in Iraq, and our government has not cared even to ask about our well-being,” Dilawar said. “We have met Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh, Kangra MP Shanta Kumar and senior administrative officials pleading for similar assistance, but we are told each time to give proof of Punjab’s assistance. How can we?” added Chandresh.

Dilawar Singh gets Rs 600 as old-age pension and Pushpa Devi has been getting a stipend of Rs 450 per month since she became a panchayat member in January. The local MLA gave the family Rs 50,000 two years ago, villagers contributed some money, while Sandeep’s three married sisters have been looking after most of their needs.

Won’t change her number lest she miss his call

Devinder Singh, 42
Construction worker, welder

FAMILY: Wife Manjeet Kaur, sons Balraj, 13, and twins Ramandeep and Gagandeep, 7, in a rented house at Rurka Kalan village in Jalandhar, Punjab

LAST CONVERSATION: On June 15, 2104. “My husband used to call home two or three times a day and now we have been waiting for one call for two years. I haven’t changed my number hoping that one day, if he gets a chance to call me, it will be on this number that he will call me.”

LAST CONTACT WITH GOVT: In February. “My humble request to Sushma Swarajji is, please talk to the Iraq government and bring them back soon.” Manjeet does not believe the statement of Harjit Masih, the hostage who returned, that the others have probably been killed.

Manjeet stitches clothes and also trains others in the craft to meet her expenses. “I cannot fulfil all demands of my sons with my earnings,” she said. What if the government stops giving the Rs 20,000 monthly aid tomorrow? “Then God will help us,” she said. Her husband used to send an average Rs 25,000 to Rs 30,000 each month.

Her wait is for her husband as well as her brother

Two brothers-in-law

FAMILY: Wished to stay unnamed, refused to be photographed. Among the family’s members is a woman whose husband from Batala and brother from Amritsar have both gone missing.

LAST CONTACT: On June 15, 2015, as between most other hostages and families

LAST CONVERSATION: In February. “We’ve gone to see Sushma Swaraj so many times, we’ve lost count,” said one family member.

“The government is not going to be moved by the stories of the families,” said the woman whose husband and brother are missing. She has been married only five months. “Sometimes it is celebrating Yoga Day, sometimes cycle day and sometimes other things and then Mann ki Baat. Nothing more is there. He talks his heart out through Mann ki Baat, but never listens to our mann ki baat. He has no time to meet us.”

On Skype, she saw her husband with the others, all weeping

Pritpal Sharma, 49

Was working as an electrician with a construction company in Mosul

FAMILY: Wife Raj Rani, daughter Diksha, 18, son Neeraj, 27, at Dhuri in Sangrur, Punjab

LAST CONVERSATION: June 15, 2014, when Raj Rani spoke to her husband on Skype. “A group of 35 to 40 men were sitting while Pritpal was talking with us and crying. He said he had no idea where they were being taken, and what will happen to them next. Even the others were crying and repeatedly asking us to help them, bring them back to India,” said Raj Rani.

LAST CONTACT WITH GOVERNMENT: In February. “For the past two years, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj has been telling us all are fine in Iraq but she has not been able to show any proof till now. I don’t want that monthly Rs 20,000 aid, I want my husband back home.”

The family says Pritpal’s phone rings at times, but it is picked by someone who speaks in a language they cannot understand. The family lives in a two-room house on a narrow lane in Lanka Basti of Dhuri. “In the past two years, I have visited New Delhi 13 times to meet Sushma Swaraj and gone to Chandigarh thrice to meet CM Parkash Singh Badal. I went along with other families,” said Neeraj Sharma, 27, Pritpal’s son, who earns Rs 7,000 as a guard at a paper mill. Raj Rani’s daughter Diksha is a student of class 12 .

“The only difference I have found in these 13 visits is that earlier Sushma Swaraj used to say your men are safe, they are working in Iraq and we will bring them back, while three months ago she said, ‘I will call you when I get concrete information’. What does this mean?” Neeraj said.

Raj Rani interrupted, “We have no negative thoughts. I am sure my husband is safe but the government needs to bring all 39 back home. Stop our monthly grant anytime, but let us speak to our men.”