39 Indians kidnapped by Islamic State in Mosul are dead: Sushma
New Delhi: Thirty-nine Indians kidnapped by the Islamic State in Iraq's Mosul in 2014 are dead, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj said on Tuesday.
The minister told the Rajya Sabha that their bodies were spotted using deep penetration radar. The bodies were exhumed from mass graves and their identities confirmed by DNA tests, she said.
"The bodies were sent to Baghdad for DNA testing. The DNA of 38 Indians have been matched," she said.
All of them were construction workers, mostly from Punjab, and were employed by an Iraqi company in Mosul.
Minister of State for External Affairs V.K. Singh visited Iraq, days after Mosul was liberated by Iraqi forces from the rule of Islamic State.
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Mohali schools receive bomb threat emails, Fortis Hospital also mentioned
Chandigarh (PTI): Some schools in Punjab's Mohali received bomb threat emails on Tuesday, which also mentioned Fortis Hospital, prompting police to launch search operation, officials said.
"The bomb threat to schools also mentioned the Fortis Hospital in Mohali, where we conducted anti-sabotage checks. Non-essential services were kept on hold while essential services continued," a senior police official said in Mohali.
He said the police were conducting checks in the schools.
Security had already been strengthened in and around Fortis hospital in Mohali after Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann was admitted there. Chief Minister Mann was re-admitted in the hospital on Monday evening, hours after he was discharged from the health facility. Mann was admitted again after he experienced exhaustion, said sources.
On Wednesday, sixteen private schools in Mohali had received bomb threat emails, triggering evacuation and prompting detailed anti-sabotage checks by police.
However, after detailed inspection, no suspicious or explosive material was found at any of the locations.
The latest scare comes close on the heels of similar threats in Chandigarh, Amritsar, Jalandhar, Patiala and Haryana schools. All threats turned out to be hoaxes.
