Abducted Indians in Iraq safe, efforts on to free them

Badal also earlier vowed to make every effort to ensure the release of the workers.

Kerala Chief Minister Oommen Chandy Thursday asked Modi to ensure that all steps are taken for the safe return of all Keralites, including 46 nurses from the state in the Tikrit town, in the wake of the violence in Iraq.

Officials in Lucknow said that more than 200 people from various parts of Uttar Pradesh also are stuck in Iraq.

Of these, 150 are pilgrims who are in Karbala for 'ziyarat' during the holy Muslim month of Shabaan, while three dozen people from Lucknow are caught up in Tikrit, Karbala, Najaf and Baghdad where they had gone on business trips.

Food Processing Industries Minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal said the affected families in Punjab have been told to alert the authorities if they get a telephone call from the workers.

The mother of Manjeet Singh, one of the abducted workers, is waiting for her son to call up. Manjeet last called up home 10 days ago. "He went to Iraq 11 months ago to work as a sanitary worker. He would phone up regularly. But since that call 10 days ago, there has been no word from him," Jeeto Kaur, his mother, told IANS.

Manjeet, 30, is married, with two kids, and belongs to Punjab.

Jeeto Kaur was in the delegation of agitated relatives of the abducted Indians who came to meet Sushma Swaraj at her office here Thursday.

According to Parminder Pal Singh, spokesperson of the Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee (DSGMC), which brought the relatives of the abducted Indians to the capital, the Indian workers were kidnapped June 12-13 but "are being looked after and being given food by their Iraqi captors.." as per available information.

The Indians, who mostly belong to Punjab's Amritsar, Batala, and Gurdaspur, were working as drivers, sanitary workers and construction labourers in Mosul, that has been taken over by militants of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL).

The external affairs ministry's crisis management group, headed by Secretary (East) Anil Wadhwa, held two meetings and Wadhwa also met the Iraqi envoy here.