NEW DELHI: Forty Indian construction workers have been kidnapped in Iraq’s second largest city of Mosul, which fell to insurgents last week, India’s foreign ministry said on Wednesday.

The identity of the kidnappers and the whereabouts of the workers are unknown, foreign ministry spokesman Syed Akbaruddin told a news briefing. No ransom demand has been received.

ISIS militants have long considered India a target.

A recent Al Qaeda video called on Indian Muslims to follow the example of Syria and Iraq and launch a jihad, or holy war, against the New Delhi government.

On Monday, India’s new government issued a strong condemnation of the insurgency and said it stood firmly by Baghdad, breaking from India’s traditionally nuanced diplomacy. It was not immediately clear why Indian workers were targeted.

“The Red Crescent confirmed to us that as per their information, 40 Indian construction workers have been kidnapped,” Akbaruddin said.

“We won’t leave any stone unturned to help every single Indian national.” Militants from the Islamic State in Iraq and Al Sham (ISIS), along with other Sunni rebels, are reported to have abducted dozens of foreigners as they swept through towns in the Tigris valley north of Baghdad in recent days.

Sixty people including workers from Turkey, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal and Turkmenistan have been taken from a hospital construction site near the oil-rich city of Kirkuk, Turkey’s Dogan news agency said.

Insurgents seized 80 Turkish nationals including diplomats, soldiers and children workers in Mosul last week.

Most of the Indian hostages are from the north Indian state of Punjab and were working for a Baghdad-based company called Tariq Noor Al Huda, Akbaruddin said.

STRANDED NURSES: A former employee said the company had told him the Indians were now safe and being moved towards Kurdish controlled areas of Iraq.

“His phone has been switched off. We are tense and are wondering what happened to him,” Gurpender Kaur told TV news channel CNN-IBN.

“Until then, at least we were able to speak for a second or two, but now even that is not possible.” About 10,000 Indian nationals work in Iraq, mostly in areas unaffected by the fighting between ISIS and the national army. About 100 Indian workers are trapped in areas overrun by ISIS, Akbaruddin said.

Published in Dawn, June 19th, 2014