Kin panic as phones of Indian youths in Iraq fall silent

AMRITSAR: Panic spread among relatives of Indian youths captured by militants in Mosul and Tikrit towns of Iraq after their mobile phones, the only contact they had with their dear ones, fell silent.
"The last time I talked with my brother was on Sunday late evening. After that I am not able to contact him on mobile phone," said Parvinder Singh whose brother Kamaljit Singh and two other relatives Gurdeep Singh and Kulwinder Singh are among the youths stuck in the trouble-torn towns captured by ultras of Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL).
Around 41 Punjabi and Himachal Pradesh youths are stuck in the two towns of Iraq. Parvinder Singh, who worked for two years in Mosul, said after receiving reports that the town had been captured by ISIL he had made hundreds of frantic calls to his relatives and friends.
"On Sunday evening, they told us that they were taken to a thread factory and were being given food," he said. After that he had been trying to contact them on mobile numbers but their phones were switched off.
Ranjit Kaur, mother of Jatinder Singh of Sialka village near Amritsar, said she had also talked to her son on Sunday but after that she was not able to establish any contact with him.