External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj said that 39 abducted Indians may be located in a jail in Badush.

:: India’s External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj has said that 39 Indians abducted by ISIS three years ago may be located in a jail in Badush in the northwest of Mosul.

DNA India quoted her as saying that Iraqi foreign minister Ibrahim al-Eshaiker al-Jaafari, who visited India on July 24, may come with more information.

In a briefing of the abducted men’s family, Swaraj said that most of the information about the abducted men came from Minister of State for External Affairs VK Singh, who held many meetings with senior Iraqi officials and who left the next day after Iraqi Prime Minister Haider Al-Abadi declared victory over ISIS in Mosul.

According to earlier reports, the abducted men were held at a church in Mosul, however there were no traces of them after the city’s recent liberation by the Iraqi forces. Swaraj added that Singh was told the abducted men were taken to a jail in Budush, whilst the fight between ISIS and Iraq forces was still ongoing, following their deployment at a hospital construction site and shit to a farm.

“East Mosul has been completely freed from ISIS and now buildings are being sanitized and authorities are not allowing civilians to go there as there may be bombs and other explosives. In West Mosul, fighting is still on,” Swaraj said.