Joy as Indian hostages come home

Celebrations awaited the hostages

Three Indian truck drivers held hostage in Iraq for 42 days have arrived home to joyous receptions.

Antaryami, Sukhdev Singh and Tilak Raj were among seven foreign drivers freed by Islamic militants on Wednesday after their employer paid a ransom.

After being greeted at Delhi airport by huge crowds, the three men travelled to their homes in northern Punjab and Himachal Pradesh.

"I never knew the winds of India smelt so sweet," Mr Singh said.

Celebrations

A dinner with 300 guests had been prepared in his honour in his Punjabi village, Makraun Kalan.

"We will do what is possible to make him happy," his sister-in-law Karamjit Kaur said.

We will request the government to give us employment so that we never have to go out of the country again Tilak Raj In pictures: Hostages return Relief for Indian families

In Antaryami's and Tilak Raj's Dharampur village in mountainous Himachal Pradesh, women danced in the streets to celebrate the hostages' release.

"I feel like I'm being re-married to my husband," said Antaryami's wife Kusum Lata.

'No beatings'

The three truckers who were held along with an Egyptian and three Kenyan hostages said they had been well-treated by their captors but would not be returning to Iraq.

"They never beat us. They used to sit around watching TV, " Antaryami said.

"At one time, when they took our pictures, we felt it was the end. We could not understand their language. We would pray with them five times a day.

"I am so happy to be back home safe, I simply have no words to express my joy."

Mr Raj spoke about how they came to be in Iraq.

"We had borrowed 80,000 rupees ($1,740) before leaving. If we had refused, the company would have sent us back. How would we have survived then?" he asked, the AFP news agency reports.

"We will never go back again to the Gulf.

"We will request the government to give us employment so that we never have to go out of the country again."

The three men were garlanded by well-wishers

He said in the early days of their captivity, they thought they would be released after a few days.

But they had lost all hope when the kidnappers had taken Antaryami away.

"We thought they could take any one of us and kill us one at a time.

"I missed my children most during the past six weeks."

The release of the men came a day after another militant group in Iraq killed 12 Nepalese hostages.

The Indians' release followed the decision of the employers, the Kuwait and Gulf Link Transport Company, to hand over $500,000 to the militants, whom it described as "purely extortionists".

The three men are all Sikhs and their release came on a day when the community celebrated the 400th year of their holy book, the Guru Granth Sahib.

"The release of the hostages is a gift of the Guru Granth Sahib," the brother of Sukhdev Singh told the Press Trust of India.