Instead of boxes full of gifts, families open Caskets with skeletons as 'Remains' of loved ones
Indians killed in Iraq: coffins with skeletons as 'Remains' of loved ones
When your father, son, husband, brother waves a goodbye and promises to come back from 'Videsh' with lots of money, a bag full of gifts and four years later you witness a caskets at your door step with a body that you can barely see.
There is no man walking inside the house with a happy face and suitcases full of gifts, but 'Mortal Remains' of your beloved family member. You have tears in your eyes not because your beloved has come back, but because you are directed to not even open the coffin to see what he looked like once upon a time.
Your beloved has come back on a special aircraft, with nothing but a bunch of bones himself.
Such is the plight of every family member who had no idea if their son, brother, husband who had gone abroad to work and get money will one day be news announced by the External Affairs Minister nationwide.
A total of 40 Indians were abducted by the terror outfit Islamic State in Iraq in June 2014. After four years, on March 20, External Affairs Minister (EAM) Sushma Swaraj informed the Rajya Sabha members in the Parliament that the 39 Indian nationals, who went missing, were killed by ISIS.
Minister of State for External Affairs Vijay Kumar Singh departed from Iraq with the mortal remains of 38 Indians, reached India on Monday. A special flight carrying mortal remains landed at Amritsar International Airport at around 2:30 pm from Baghdad.
For the distraught families, the wait has been long and agonising. "We had the hope that our brother will return, but all hope is gone now", said Avtar Singh, a relative of one of the person from Punjab killed in Iraq. "The wait has ended now. We were hoping and waiting for him to return alive," said Gurpinder Kaur, family member of another man killed in Mosul.
The Punjab government has announced compensation of Rs. 5 lakhs and a government job to the families of those killed. VK Singh, however, was criticised for his sharp retort to reporters who questioned him about compensation for the grieving families: "This is not like distributing biscuits."
Your boarding pass is replaced with a tag on the coffin, how do you overcome such a heartbreaking sight? Does the 5 lakh or 10 lakh replace the story that will haunt you for years? Will the loss ever be replaced or will the mind ever stop thinking of a coffin placed at your door step? Will the four letter word "IRAQ" not send shivers down your spine again?
-Written and Edited by Nimrat Kaur for PTC News
