NEW DELHI, 1 August 2004 — India said yesterday it is considering evacuating about 6,000 of its nationals from Iraq as a top diplomat rushed to Baghdad in a bid to secure the release of three Indian workers held hostage by militants.
The Press Trust of India news agency quoted Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who is attending a summit in Thailand, as saying a contingency plan is being finalized to bring home Indians in Iraq.
“The government is aware of the problems and all preparations are on the anvil,” Manmohan told the news agency in Bangkok, adding everything possible was being done to secure the release of the three Indian truck drivers.
The announcement came as the kidnappers, the “Islamic Secret Army — Holders of the Black Banners”, warned through a negotiator they were serious about killing the hostages one by one if their demands were not met by a yseterday 1500 GMT deadline.
Earlier, the PTI reported quoting two truck drivers who were detained and later freed by militants in Iraq in May, that over 5000 Indians were in “the custody of the US troops” in the Gulf country and some of them were killed in attacks on the western forces.
“Over 5000 Indian truck drivers and laborers are still in the custody of the American Army and some of them have been killed in attacks by Iraqi people on the vehicles carrying US Army’s personnel and war equipment,” Lakhwinder Singh and Harnke Singh of Bhangala village said in Jalandhar.
Families of the Indians killed in Iraq were not even informed about the death of their kin, they alleged.
Lakhwinder and Harnke, cousins, were detained by Iraqi militants in May and were later freed on the condition of not returning to Iraq. The came back from Kuwait last month.
“Since the American Army has taken vehicles of Kuwaiti transporters on lease, they forcibly take drivers to Iraq and if anybody shows restrain, they beat him up mercilessly,” they alleged. “Even the American Army has kept Indian laborers hostages in their camps and do not allow them to leave the premises.”
Meanwhile, angry villagers smashed windshields of buses and trucks in north India yesterday when the vehicles tried to break a highway blockade imposed in protest against the kidnapping of three Indians.
About 500 protesters threw stones at the vehicles and used iron rods to smash their glass panes in Dehlan village, home of Antaryami, one of three Indian truck drivers held hostage by Iraqi militants, witnesses said. Yesterday’s violence came as Iraqi mediator Sheikh Hisham Al-Dulaymi began talks in Baghdad with a representative of the Kuwaiti employer of the drivers to resolve the crisis.
On Friday, hundreds of men blocked traffic across the region and enforced a daylong general strike in protest against New Delhi’s failure to win the release of the hostages.
The deadline of 1500 GMT on Friday passed with no word from the kidnappers who had threatened to kill one of the seven men unless negotiations for their release got under way.
Families and friends of the three Indians huddled together in their villages yesterday as the clock ticked toward a new execution deadline, which the Iraqi mediator warned was the “last”. The anguished families of the three have made impassioned pleas for their loved ones to be released, saying they will give all their wealth in return for the safe return of the captives.
The Indians being held hostage are Antaryami, Tilak Raj and Sukhdev Singh.
Antaryami and Tilak Raj hail from the northern state of Himachal Pradesh, while Sukhdev Singh comes from neighboring Punjab state.
Antaryami’s distraught father, Ram Murthi, said yesterday he was “hoping against hope” that his son would come back home unharmed while the village remained tense.
“I can’t stop the people of my town and state from staging protests. I can only stop my family,” he said. In hostage Singh’s village of Makraun Kalan, a relative made another appeal to the abductors to release the truckers.
“What good will it do if you keep poor people hostage? If they hold a minister’s son they will get something. We are poor people. What will the kidnappers get by holding a poor person?” he asked.
Singh’s father Sher Singh said the family was now looking for “divine intervention.”
“We have lost all hope. Only God can save them now,” he said in a choked voice, the Press Trust of India news agency said.
In a hospital in Una, hostage Tilak Raj’s wife Promilla Devi remained under sedation, oblivious to the rapidly-changing developments, reports said.
