In Rurka Kalan in Jalandhar district, Manjit Kaur, now the widow of Devinder Singh, is inconsolable.
“All hopes that Union External Affairs minister Sushma Swaraj was giving us in several meetings stand dashed to ground. I have come to know about the death of my husband through media. We have not received any information about it from the government,” she said.
Manjit Kaur said she, alongwith other family members of concerned Indians, had met Sushma Swaraj several times in New Delhi.
“On all these occasions, Swaraj had told us that the concerned Indians are missing but alive. Eventually, disappointment came our way,” she rued.
“We met the Union minister (Swaraj) 11 to 12 times and were told that as per their sources, the missing Indians are alive. They have been saying that Harjit Masih, the lone survivor, is a liar. If your sources have been saying they were alive and now suddenly what happened. The government should have told us they have no information about missing Indians rather than making false statements,” said Sarwan, whose 31-year-old brother Nishan was among those killed and who received heard his brother’s voice over a phone call in June 21, 2014.
Sushma Swaraj, however, denied that she gave anyone any false hope.
Defending herself against a barrage of criticism, the minister said she had kept her word that she would declare them dead if she gets conclusive proof