Are abducted Indian workers Is ISIL using captured Indians in Iraq as labourers?

Following militants of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) capturing swathes of area across northern Iraq in less than a month of fighting, reports have now emerged that the 39 Indians being held hostage by militants are being used as labourers by the insurgents’ leaders. A report in The Hindu  said that the 39 Indian workers are being forced to build defensive fortifications for the militants, amid a shortage of food and water in Mosul. “The men, Kurdish security services believe, are being taken between various locations in the city’s Sunni-dominated quarter, on the west bank of the Tigris River,” the report says. The reports make one thing clear: The Indian government’s odds of rescuing these workers will remain slim if the situation never balloons into a hostage standoff. If reports, and ISIL’s previous modus operandi are to be believed, then this reality cannot be ignored. Meanwhile, last week, ISIL declared that captured territories were now part of the ‘Caliphate’ and called for Muslims from across the world to declare jihad and migrate back to the rechristened ‘Islamic State’. In fact, among the scores of ISIL fighters are reportedly several Indians who left their homes to join the group – something the ISIL chief and self-anointed ‘Caliph’ confirmed in a 20 minute audio message. Some Indian reports have emerged on this new reality too. “…on January 22, a Tamil Nadu-born person had left for Syria to fight alongside the Islamic fundamentalists. In 2013, the same person had trained with the Chechen jihadis and had recruited two Chennai college students for Jihad in Syria as well,” a report in the  Hindustan Times, quotes an unnamed Indian intelligence source as saying. [caption id=“attachment_1597283” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Representational image. AP[/caption] According to The Hindu, the person in question is named Haja Fakkurudeen Usman Ali, a Tamil Nadu-born Singapore permanent resident. “Based on information from an informant, Singapore’s intelligence services determined Mr  Ali had left Singapore for Syria on January 22, 2014, travelling through Turkey — where several jihadist groups operating inside the violence-torn state are now based,” the report says. A year ago, Syrian ambassador to India had said that several Indians were fighting in Syria. A report in the Indian Express quotes his as saying: “Indian fighters are waging Islamic jihad, along with fighters from Chechnya, Afghanistan and other countries.” Many, he had said, were caught alive.