by Pratap Chakravarty
NEW DELHI, July 26 (AFP) - Families of three Indians being held hostage in Iraq along with four other truck drivers cheered Monday on receiving news that the captors had stayed their threat to start killing the men one by one.
"This is good news. Very good news. The entire village prayed today and we shall continue," said Ram Dass, grand uncle of hostage Antaryami.
Dass, speaking to AFP by telephone from his village of Dehlon, 430 kilometres (270 miles) north of New Delhi, acknowledged the efforts of the Indian government to free the truckers.
"We have no complaints with the Indian government. They are trying their best," Dass said, adding however, "but let us also not make irresponsible comments."
Dass said he had just one appeal to make: "Please release our boys. We want nothing else. We are also appealing to our god."
The parents of another hostage, Sukhdev Singh, were too weak from the trauma to attend a telephone call but the 26-year-old trucker's aunt, Bibi Jimer Kaur exploded with joy.
"Thank you God. Thank you very much," Kaur said on receiving the news in the hostage's home village of Makraun Kalan, 300 kilometres (190 miles) from New Delhi, where earlier Monday relatives rose before dawn to read from the holiest Sikh scriptures, the Granth Sahib.
"This is the ray of hope," she said.
Karamjit Kaur, the Sikh driver's sister-in-law, said the news would cheer to the hostage's parents who are now being monitored by doctors for shock.
The wife of third hostage Tilak Raj, meanwhile, was under sedation in hospital in her home village of Dharampur, 450 kilometres (280 miles) from New Delhi, where she was rushed overnight with hypertension.
The government, meanwhile, reiterated assurances of a speedy resolution.
"We have made several appeals which were made on India's standing in the Arab world and on various issues and these appeals have received a very positive response," foreign ministry spokesman Navtej Sarna said.
"We are in touch with various people. We have been told they are safe and unharmed. The negotiations are proceeding well and all efforts are being made to secure their release," Sarna said, describing the crisis as "a delicate matter."
New Delhi has appealed over Arabic television networks for the release of the three, saying India has friendly ties with Iraq and that it did not send troops to bolster the US-led coalition forces in the war-ravaged country.
Video footage shown by Al-Arabiya television Monday of the seven foreign truck drivers held hostage in Iraq confirmed the authenticity of an earlier statement received by AFP staying a threat to start killing them while negotiations proceed.
The video showed two masked armed members of the group standing behind the seven hostages, all dressed in the same traditional white robes, while a third member, his face also covered, read the statement.
The message, in the name of the "Holders of the Black Banners", said the group had agreed to stave off its threat to start killing the hostages from 1600 GMT Monday to allow negotiations for their release to take place.
The three Indians, three Kenyans and an Egyptian were snatched last Wednesday.
The statement warned New Delhi not to make any "irresponsible" comments against the insurgents, who say they have been battling the US-led coalition in Iraq, if it wanted to save lives of its three nationals, but issued no deadline for the talks to bear fruit.
The captors holding the truckers are demanding the pullout of their Kuwait-based transport firm from Iraq, payment of "damages" for those killed by US troops in Fallujah and the release of Iraqi detainees from American and Kuwaiti prisons."