39 Indians Confirmed Dead – The Latest Horrific Headline Out of Syria!

ISIS strikes again

Indians were stunned by an announcement made by the Foreign Minister in Parliament on 20 March, 2018. 39 out of 40 Indians kidnapped by the ISIS in 2014, were confirmed dead, four years after they first went missing. The impact of this news on the families of those slain would undoubtedly be devastating, but the news of death and destruction that consistently emanates from that part of the world is shocking for all of us as well.

Body count of 39 sends shock-waves across the nation

In 2014, 40 Indian construction workers who had gone abroad for work were abducted by militants of the Islamic State. At the time, about ten thousand Indians were thought to be working and living in Iraq. These men were captured while working close to Mosul when militants succeeded in capturing vast tracts of area. At the time, the Indian government had said that efforts were ongoing to find the missing workers. One of those workers managed to escape and return.

Harjit Masih is the only one from among the 40 abducted men to escape. He did so by posing as a Bangladeshi. In 2015, Masih had stated that all the 39 Indians had been killed at the time; however Indian authorities continued to say that efforts to locate and rescue the 39 were still on. A mass grave of 39 bodies buried near the village of Badush was located recently using radar. This has now confirmed what Masih has been saying for years. The ongoing debate in India where the opposition is now alleging political expedience in terms of the timing of the announcement detracts from the real horror of these executions. 39 Indian families who were clinging on to hope, are now devastated. On the other hand, the suffering of countless families in and around Syria who daily live harsh, brutal and uncertain lives simply continues unabated.

A brutal conflict ensues

When President Bashar al-Assad brutally crushed a peaceful pro-democracy protest in 2011, what ensued was a bloody, brutal, many-sided civil war which seems to have no ending. Since the first uprising in 2011, an estimated 350,000 people have died; some of those militants; but as many of 106,000 of those innocent people just caught in the crossfire. Entire cities have been devastated and by some estimates, about sixty thousand people are missing and presumed dead.

One BBC report said that 2016 was the worst year for children since the country's uprising began. More than 625 children died during that year; a significant proportion of those in or close to a school. According to UNICEF about 850 children were recruited into the fight during that period; children who would, in cases be employed to kill, become prison guards or even suicide bombers. About 2.8 million are trapped in hard to reach regions; nearly three hundred thousand are living under siege. Millions of children are under potential attack everyday; a “depth of suffering” that is “unprecedented” according to UNICEF. An estimated 6 million kids in the area are reliant on humanitarian aid.

The horror continues

According to one LA Times report, torture in Syrian prisons is an ongoing horror. Gang rapes; tens of thousands of prisoners living in awful conditions; some being starved of food and water with other forms of abuse are rampant; and about 17,000 people are believed to have died in custody. The government forces allegedly attacking citizens in rebel-held areas with chemical bombs, horrifies anew with details of painful deaths and even rescue workers are impacted by the toxicity.

While various agencies including the Syrian government and rebels are implicated in the continuing violence, one obvious question would be, where is the funding coming from? Overt and covert support from various vested interests makes this war all the most sinister and intractable. Everyone condemns the attacks and expresses their grief, but is there any kind of end in sight?

At some point, those involved in the fighting may have lost sight of their original objectives. The fight now seems only to be between shadowy entities simply looking to inflict the most harm in any way they can. The utter senselessness of the killing, the maiming and the disfiguring of an entire generation's psyche continues unabated. The scars that someone like Masih will bear for life is what most of us can only imagine, but even this imagination does no justice to the harsh reality.

Do you have something interesting you would like to share? Write to us at [email protected]