Agencies: With ISIS militants now taking hold of 46 Indian nurses in Iraq, the hostage crisis for India just got worse. Already, 39 workers from India are in the captivity of the al-Qaeda splinter group, Islamic State of Iraq and Levant (ISIS), which is running a bloody insurrection to establish a new Islamic caliphate in the Middle East.
It’s been about three weeks since the workers were kidnapped from the ISIS-controlled town of Mosul, but there has been little visible movement forward in securing their release. The kidnapping of the nurses only underscores the delicate nature of a security threat facing thousands of Indian expatriates living across Iraq, although, for now, most of them are located away from the battle zones.
So, what is exactly stopping India securing the release of its kidnapped citizens in Iraq? To understand the challenge India faces in retrieving its abducted citizens one would have to look at the possible options before New Delhi. The government is already exploring some of these, including seeking the help of United States, given that country’s influence in the region and over the government of Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki.
New Delhi is also known to have sought help from dominant Sunni powers such as Saudi Arabia and Qatar that are believed to have some leverage on ISIS. A third option is to reach out to former leaders of executed Iraqi dictator Saddam Husain’s Ba’ath party who reportedly have a line open to Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the ISIS chief who recently assigned himself as the caliph of Muslims worldwide. But in exercising one option over the other, India is caught in a dilemma.
To be sure, there is little hope for help from Baghdad because the town, Mosul, where the Indians are being held is an ISIS stronghold. Moreover, the Iraqi parliament is now preoccupied with a standoff over electing a new government, besides fighting the Sunni Arab militants of ISIS.
Even if India were to open a line with ISIS, possibly through Izzat al-Douri, Saddam Husain’s former second-in-command and leader of the militia Jaysh al-Tariqa al-Naqshbandia, it would be difficult to convince the group to give up the Indian workers who they would want to use as human shields against any Iraqi military assault. Or as a bargaining chip to secure a safe passage for its commanders in the event of an Iraqi siege.
Besides, ISIS commanders would also be wary of handing over the Indian hostages to any unknown entity because of fears of sabotage by rival forces or security agencies, something that may lead to a groundswell of global opinion against ISIS and possibly hasten a western military intervention.
In such a scenario, India must develop a network of ground-level interlocutors capable of reaching out with trust to most of the stakeholders in the region. New Delhi’s former ambassador to Iraq, Suresh Reddy, who is overseeing the rescue operations on the ground, has the experience and expertise to do just that.
No comments:
Post a Comment