Free Iraq hostages, families ask

Jaspal Kaur, left, mother of Sukhdev Singh, calls for his return

Families of three Indian truck drivers being held hostage in Iraq have issued emotional pleas for the kidnappers to release their loved ones.

A group called The Holders of the Black Banners took the men, along with three Kenyans and an Egyptian, on Wednesday.

"Take everything from me but return my son safely to me," said the father of one hostage, Antaryami Raj.

Kidnappers issued a fresh 48-hour deadline for their demands to be met in a tape aired on TV station al-Jazeera.

Of the Indian hostages, Antaryami and Tilak Raj are from Himachal Pradesh, while Sukhdev Singh is from Punjab.

Sole breadwinners

Ram Murti Bains told the BBC's Baldev Chauhan he had lost his elder son three years ago and now Antaryami, 33, was the only breadwinner.

I beg the kidnappers to leave my innocent son... What have we, or my son to do with international politics? Ram Murti Bains, hostage's father

Antaryami's wife is also anxiously awaiting his return. They have a two-month-old daughter who has yet to see her father.

Shrinking land-holdings in Antaryami's village of Dehlan forced him first to Delhi and then to the Gulf to earn more money.

About 40km from Dehlan is Dharampur, where the family of Tilak Raj, 40, lives.

His family learned of the kidnapping after watching television news.

His wife, Promila, appealed to the captors to release her husband, also the sole breadwinner. They have three children.

"We don't want money, we just want him back safe," she said.

The kidnappers threaten to kill the hostages one by one

In India's Punjab state, the family of Sukhdev Singh said they were going through hell.

"The government must intervene to save their lives. With great hopes we had sent our son abroad in April this year by selling a piece of land," said his father, Sher Singh.

The hostage's mother, Jaspal Kaur, said: "I was not ready to send my son abroad. I wanted him to live as we live now, but he wanted to improve the condition of the family."

The hostage-takers had demanded that the drivers' Kuwaiti employer Kuwait and Gulf Link Transport shut its operations in Iraq or it would kill one hostage every three days starting on Saturday.

However, in a videotape broadcast on the Arabic satellite TV station al-Jazeera on Friday, the kidnappers apparently issued a fresh, 48-hour deadline for their demands to be met.

In the tape, they also increased their demands, adding that Iraqi prisoners be freed from Kuwaiti and US jails and the company pay compensation to the families of those killed in American attacks on the town of Falluja.

Earlier, Indian Foreign Minister Natwar Singh issued an appeal also through al-Jazeera asking for the three Indians to be released.

He said there were no Indian soldiers in Iraq and that his government was making "all-out efforts" to secure the early release of the hostages.

Kenya and Egypt have no troops in Iraq either. However, nationals of the three countries have taken haulage jobs for private companies.

Some three million Indians are said to be working in the Gulf region and an estimated 100,000 in Iraq.