Man who fled ISIS captivity claims 39 Indians are dead

Harjit Massih was among the 40 Indian construction workers abducted by ISIS last year.

ISIS Flag Source: AAP

An Indian who fled Islamic State captivity in Iraq, says 39 Indians so far believed to be i alive, were executed last year. The 24 year old man from the north Indian state of Punjab claims he escaped with a bullet in his leg as gunmen fired at the captive Indians from close range. But the government of India refuses to believe that the Indians had been executed. Harjit Massih had so far been kept in protective custody by the government of India. But, on Thursday, he met reporters for the first time after returning to India months ago. According to Harjeet, he had escaped massacre by the ISIS. He said he was working in a factory in Mosul when all his coworkers, including fifty Bangladeshis, were held captive by the ISIS on June 11 last year. A couple of days later, they were handed over to a different group of fighters, who separated the Indians and the Bangladeshis. Harjit claims that all the forty Indians were put on a truck and taken near a hillock, where they were queued up and shot from behind. As soon as firing began, we all fell down, the man next to me fell on me and I stayed still for the next 10-12 minutes said Harjit. Showing an injury mark on his leg, that Harjit says was caused by the bullet fired at him by ISIS fighters, he said he somehow reached Erbil and contacted officials of the Indian embassy in Bagdad. While, it was known that Harjit had escaped death at the hands of ISIS, fate of the remaining 39 Indians, most of them from Punjab, had remained uncertain. Amid growing concern for their lives, the government repeatedly assured their extremely worried and exasperated families that the men were alive. Indias External Affairs Minister, Sushma Swaraj even told parliament last year that her department had credible information about safety of the 39 Indians. Refusing to believe Masih, Mrs. Swaraj said that the government would not abandon its efforts to locate these men. Sources have confirmed to us that the Indians are alive, she said, without being able to pinpoint where or in what condition they are.