VK Singh meets Iraq's army chief to trace?39 missing Indians in Mosul

India's minister of state for external affairs VK Singh today met Iraq's army chief General Othman al-Ghanmi today to seek assistance in tracing 39 missing Indians in war-torn Mosul.

India has been frantically trying to track the thirty-nine missing Indians in Mosul for the past several months. VK Singh had visited Mosul in July earlier to press the Iraqi government for more information but had returned empty-handed.

India's external minister Sushma Swaraj had said that the missing Indians may have been hauled up in a jail in Badush in northwest Mosul but WION correspondent Daniele Pagani visited the area and reported that jail, where the Indians were believed to be held, had been levelled to the ground. 

The relatives of the thirty-nine missing Indians have been anxiously waiting for some good news and have been in touch with India's foreign ministry. 

Iraqi forces had freed Mosul from Islamic State(IS) in July after bitter fighting, three years after the terrorist organization had seized the city. 

A 100,000-strong alliance led by Iraqi government units Kurdish Peshmerga fighters and Shi'ite militias had defeated the IS which had made Mosul its stronghold and part of a "caliphate".