Narendra Modi in first foreign policy crisis over missing workers in Iraq
New Indian prime minister struggles with conflicting information and limited options in the case of 40 allegedly abducted workers
India's new government was yesterday struggling to make headway in its first foreign crisis as it tried to secure the release of 40 construction workers being held in war-torn Iraq, home to some 10,000 Indian expatriates.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has sent a former ambassador to Baghdad to coordinate rescue efforts while the chief minister of Punjab province - where most of the workers hail from - has said he was willing to pay a ransom for their freedom.
But while India's foreign ministry has described the men as having been "kidnapped", it says it does not know who has taken and that it has not received a ransom demand.
The ministry said yesterday it had learnt the location of the workers and was pursuing "every avenue" in a "tenuous security situation".
"In situations where there exists no single authority, where there exists no established interlocutors, we are trying to do our best in the circumstances," foreign ministry spokesman Syed Akbaruddin said.
The ministry said it was working with the Red Crescent Society and other aid groups in Iraq, but acknowledged the situation on the ground was "very difficult".
Iraqi Red Crescent president Yaseen Ahmed Abbas said the group had been taken away in several vehicles by armed men while they were working on a stadium in Mosul. "We don't know what happened to them," Abbas said. "It is difficult to talk to the insurgents, there is no official who we can talk to."
