In 2014, Harjeet Bassi, an Indian told the Government of India that he had miraculously escaped from the clutches of ISIS in Iraq although 39 other Indians had been taken to a forest and shot dead. The government of India chose not to believe him and claimed that his story was full of contradictions.

“There are contradictions in the story Bassi told… It is logical not to accept the statement. We have got six sources which said they have not been killed,” Sushma Swaraj, External Affairs Minister told the Rajya Sabha in November, 2014

In June, 2014 Indian NSA Ajit Doval had told Mail Today, “The government is totally seized of the matter, there are some grey areas and some bright spots on the horizon right now, but we are confident of a swift resolution to the issue. We are working in a very professional manner to bring our people back so that they can rejoin their families.”

In 2017, the families of the 39 Indians were asked by the Government of India to take DNA tests. Mohinder Kaur, mother of one of the 39 Indians told Hindustan Times:

“This fresh development has once again built a new hope in our hearts as we have full faith in the words of Sushma Swaraj, who repeatedly assured us that our son is alive and the government will leave no stone unturned for his safe return,”

2018: Turns out Harjeet Bassi, the man whose story was disbelieved by the Government of India was right after all.

Today, Sushma Swaraj told the Rajya Sabha that the 39 Indians had indeed been killed. Search operations led to a mound in Badoosh where locals said some bodies were buried by the ISIS. Deep penetration radars were used to establish that the mound indeed was a mass grave, she said, adding the Indian authorities requested their Iraqi counterpart to exhume the bodies.

Swaraj said the mass grave had exactly 39 bodies, with distinctive features like long hair, non-Iraqi shoes and IDs.

The bodies were then sent to Baghdad for DNA testing.

DNA testing by Martyrs Foundation has established identity of 38 Indians while there has been 70 per cent matching of the DNA for the 39th person, she said.

Was the Indian government fooled for four years or did it deliberately lie? Here’s what Hartosh Singh Bal, Political Editor of the Caravan tweeted today:

for staying with this was blocked by @SushmaSwaraj. we’ve been deceived deliberately by a mendacious, cowardly government seeking to keep Modi’s chest inflated. in any functional democracy, sushma & vk singh would’ve handed in their papers, govt would have been in the dock — Hartosh Singh Bal (@HartoshSinghBal) March 20, 2018

the end of four years of lies by the indian govt/sushma swaraj just to protect narendra modi’s image https://t.co/l1IriuSZhg — Hartosh Singh Bal (@HartoshSinghBal) March 20, 2018

Manish Chibber, Editor (Investigations and Special Projects) at The Print, tweeted: