‘Driving to Iraq’s common, we get six dinars extra’

I am scared, I fear for my life. What do I do now?’’ There’s no mistaking the tremble in Jasbir Singh’s voice, on the li...

I am scared, I fear for my life. What do I do now?’’ There’s no mistaking the tremble in Jasbir Singh’s voice, on the line from Kuwait.

Working for the Kuwait and Gulf Link (KGL) Transport — the company which employed Sukhdev Singh, Antaryami and Tilak Raj who have been taken hostage by an armed Iraqi group — Jasbir from Kurali in Punjab never thought that making quick trips into Iraq for extra money could be so dangerous.

Living in the same building as Sukhdev, Jasbir told The Indian Express over phone that it’s ‘‘quite common’’ for drivers to make trips inside Iraq.

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‘‘Company trucks keep going to Iraq. Specialist drivers are asked whether they would like to go. Many people go and return within three-four days. The rest is taken care of by the company. We don’t know what’s sent,’’ he said. ‘‘We are paid about 75 Kuwaiti Dinars per month. If one is ready to go to Iraq, he is paid an additional 6 Kuwaiti Dinars per day.’’

He said Sukhdev had been to Iraq in the past too. ‘‘His relative Swaran Singh too is probably in Iraq right now.’’

He said his company bosses hadn’t told them about what had happened to Sukhdev and the other two. ‘‘We are not supposed to question the company. There are some 400 Indian drivers in Kuwait, many from south India.’’

‘‘In Kuwait, there is absolutely no problem. Once you reach the Iraq border, the military escorts the trucks. I will never go to Iraq. I now realise there is a big problem.’’

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A father of three, Jasbir landed in Kuwait two months ago after paying nearly Rs 80,000 to agents in Chandigarh and Mumbai.

Recruitment firm ‘sent them to Kuwait not Iraq’

		MUMBAI: The three Indians taken hostage in Iraq were never sent there. That is what Oman Agencies co-proprietor Amir Muscatwalla claims. Sitting at his Nariman Point office, Muscatwalla said Oman Agencies found them jobs as truck drivers for a firm called Kuwait Gulf Link (KGL). ‘‘They left on a six-month employment visa for Kuwait,’’ he told The Indian Express. He said he was surprised to learn that they had landed in Iraq. The three paid Rs 10,000 and left for Kuwait on November 22, 2003, Muscatwalla said. They had signed a two-year contract with KGL for a monthly salary of Rs 17,500, he said. Muscatwalla refused to show the contract copy to The Indian Express stating it was a ‘‘confidential document’’. The agency had not been in touch with the captured men ever since they left the country. ‘‘We have been a reputed company for over 30 years and have never given employment to anyone in Iraq. My sympathies are with the families,’’ Muscatwalla said. Muscatwalla is not clear on the role of Universal Services, the hostages’ present employer. ‘‘I have never heard of them. The Indians signed a two-year contract with KGL. I am perplexed how they could break it in less than a year,’’ he stated. —ENS

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