'39 Indians abducted by Islamic State in Iraq are dead'

New Delhi:- All the 39 Indians abducted by Islamic State in Iraq's Mosul in 2014 were dead, Indian external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj told the Rajya Sabha on Monday, dashing hopes of families that were desperately hoping for their safe return.

The bodies were exhumed from a mass grave and sent to Baghdad for DNA tests, the minister said. "Yesterday we got information that DNA samplesf 38 people have matched and DNA of the 39th person has matched 70 per cent," Swaraj said.

Minister of state for external affairs VK Singh would bring back the mortal remains from Iraq. The plane would first go to Amritsar, then to Patna and then to Kolkata, the minister said.

Harjit Masih, the only Indian to escape the abductors, had claimed that the others in the group were gunned down on June 15, 2014.

The group of 40 men, most of them construction workers, were snatched from war-ravaged Mosul, the northern Iraqi city which was once a stronghold of Islamic State.

Late last year, the Indian government collected DNA samples from the families after several mass graves were found in Mosul that was liberated from IS clutches in July of that year.

The government had classified the men as missing and had said it would continue its search for them till it received concrete proof of their death.