ERBIL – The Indian government is sending two diplomats to Erbil to pursue the case of 40 Indian building workers missing since ISIS took over Mosul and a swathe of Iraqi territory in June. The Times of India said the government was responding to appeals by the families of the 40, who are believed to be still alive after their abduction by ISIS from construction sites that the militants overran. The government sent Suresh Reddy, its outgoing ambassador to Baghdad, back to Iraq within a day of the men’s disappearance in mid-June. Reddy is reported to have been instrumental in securing the swift release of 44 Indian nurses who were also seized around the same time. He established contact with their captors and negotiated their freedom, according to Indian press reports. The nurses were freed and bussed to Mosul within 48 hours and then home. In the case of the missing men, there has been no direct contact with their captors. Sushma Swaraj, the Indian foreign minister, said there was second-hand information that they were alive and being forcibly put to work. The two Indian diplomats bound for Erbil were named as Sanjay Rana, currently a counselor at the Indian embassy in the Maldives, and Abu Mathen George, a second secretary in Cairo. The Hindu newspaper noted that India had few resources on the ground in Iraq, having re-established its diplomatic presence in Baghdad at the level of ambassador only three years ago, nearly a decade after it wound down the mission to a minimum at the time of the US invasion in 2003. The newspaper said India’s national security establishment had taken a back seat in the crisis, leaving the foreign ministry to deal with it. In August, Swaraj told Parliament her hopes were pinned on an ‘Eid gift’ from ISIS. ISIS has made no ransom demands and India does not have a prisoner swap deal to offer, it added.
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