Iraq crisis: Rajnath Singh ropes in Sunni leaders to help free Indian hostages
Sunni leaders have been asked to appeal through their contacts to kidnappers
New Delhi: In a major initiative aimed at securing the release of 39 kidnapped Indians in Iraq, Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh contacted senior Sunni religious leaders from across the country. Government sources said that the Sunni leaders have been asked to appeal through their contacts in the Gulf countries to the kidnappers, the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIS), whose cadre are said to be hardcore Sunni followers.
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The decision to ask the home minister to rope in Sunni leaders was taken at a high-level security review meeting chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the Iraq hostage crisis on Friday. Considering that Mr Singh was the chief minister of Uttar Pradesh, which has a sizeable Muslim population, he enjoys excellent working relations with the Muslim religious leaders, sources said.
The response from the Sunni leaders was "extremely positive" and they were willing to extend all help to the government. Some Sunni leaders went to the extent of saying that they were willing to go to Iraq to appeal to ISIS militants to release the hostages, they said.
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“Local Sunni leaders assured us that they will issue public statements requesting the release of kidnapped Indians on humanitarian grounds,” a senior government official said.
The Indian security agencies have so far not established a direct contact with the kidnappers, though India’s special envoy in Baghdad Suresh Reddy was trying to establish links with some Sunni tribal leaders active in parts of northern Iraq.