’Indians in Kuwait being forced to Iraq’

More than 5,000 Indian drivers and other workers are reportedly being held by the US soldiers in Iraq and Kuwait to ferry arms and ration trucks.

by RAJESH DEOL

DH NEWS SERVICE CHANDIGARH:

If the Iraqi terrorists don’t get you, the US army or the Kuwaiti transport companies will. That is the state of affairs in Iraq according to two truck drivers from Punjab, Harnek Singh and Lakhwinder Singh, who managed to flee back home after escaping from the clutches of an Iraqi militant group.

Even as the families of three Indians held hostage by an Iraqi terrorist group await their return, the two said such kidnappings were not the first of their kind involving Indians in Iraq.

"In fact, more than 5,000 Indian drivers and other workers are detained by the US army in its camps and messes in Iraq and Kuwait for ferrying arms and ration-loaded trucks for the US soldiers," Harnek claimed. He said they were being subjected to physical and mental torture while being forced to work against their wishes. "They want to get out of Iraq or Kuwait at the first available opportunity," Harnek said claiming that many Indian youths, including a few Punjabis, had already lost their lives but their families did not know this.

Another truck driver Amarjit Singh (from Madara village of Jalandhar district) who managed to flee from Kuwait last month, claimed that Kuwaiti transport companies were forcing Indian drivers to work in Iraq against their wishes to ensure uninterrupted supply of food items and arms and ammunition to the US army.
He said that hundreds of Indians had resigned their jobs with Kuwaiti companies but the companies were not letting them go by refusing to hand over their passports and other travel documents.

Threatened
Amarjit was suddenly asked by his Kuwaiti company, two months after he joined it, to leave for Iraq on a US army assignment.

"Though I did not have a valid international driving licence, the employer forced me to obey the order and threatened me with dire consequences if I refused," Amarjit said. He said he somehow managed to give his employer the slip and came back to India.

However, Kulwant Singh Minhas of the same village was not so lucky. He was killed in an attack by Iraqi militants as he was driving a vehicle carrying supplies for the US army in February. For many days his killing went unnoticed by Indian authorities.

Kulwant’s widow Daljeet Kaur, says the family received the body only 23 days after the death. She said her husband was being forcibly asked to work in Iraq.
At the back of all these tragic tales lies the racket being run by the ubiquitous travel agents in Punjab. Most of these agents dupe the jobless youths by promising them heaven and dump them in hell.

Amarjit’s travel agent had charged him Rs 1 lakh promising a good job in Kuwait.
Even the families of Antaryami, Sukhdev Singh and Tilak Raj, being held captive by a militant group in Iraq, had also paid hefty amounts to such travel agents to send their men abroad.

http://www.deccanherald.com/deccanherald/aug032004/i7.asp