Tags:
Journalism of Courage
With Iraqi mediator Hisham Al-Dulaimi and KGL maintaining contact over the telephone, efforts to secure the release of the three Indians who have been taken hostage seemed to gain momentum today. An across-the-table meeting is likely on Thursday.
MoS for External Affairs E. Ahamed said this evening that the process is continuing while a meeting between KGL — the company employing the three — and Dulaimi is ‘‘expected to take place tomorrow’’. It’s learnt that a KGL employee was supposed to leave for Iraq later today.
While emphasising that the company was ‘‘optimistic about the final results’’, she said all concerned were working towards an early conclusion to the crisis. On whether KGL’s pre-condition that Dulaimi should not be the only one with whom the discussions will take place had been accepted, she chose not to reveal much.
KGL had placed certain pre-conditions for Dulaimi to accept before the negotiations could restart. This included a committment that unlike on Sunday, the Iraqi mediator would not pull out suddenly.
Buoyed by the fact that Dulaimi did respond in an hour after the conditions were communicated, the company agreed to send its employee to Iraq as soon as possible for face-to-face negotiations.
Meanwhile, the hostages — Antaryami, Tilakraj and Sukhdev Singh — are said to be safe, though there is much anxiety over the process taking so long. On the efforts being made by Indian missions in Baghdad and Kuwait, sources said officials there have been in touch with influential figures in the area to make it clear that India has traditionally had and intends to continue friendly ties with Iraq.
