The Indian Government is in touch with several of its partners in Iraq apart from the construction company in Mosul for which the Indian workers were working for and the International Red Crescent to try and make contact with the 40 Indian workers who have been kidnapped.
“The majority of those kidnapped are from north India, mostly from the Punjab belt. At the moment we have not received any ransom note. Even the International Red Crescent is not aware of their location,” a spokesman said.
Pointing out that the northern and southern parts of Iraq where there were about 9,000 Indians were not facing any problems, the spokesman said that they were aware of two cases where the security of Indians seems to “tenuous” including the case of the 46 Indian nurses in Tikrit.
“Our Mission has been in touch with the 46 nurses. We had requested the Red Crescent to try and contact them and see to their welfare and security. Crescent advised us that the situation is not adequate for taking a surface route,” the spokesman added.
Meanwhile, the first lot of Indians working with a Turkish company in Iraq are leaving on Friday as the airports in Baghdad and Erbil are open, the spokesman said.