Bengaluru: Four JD(S) workers from Karnataka, who were on a visit to Sri Lanka, are among the 290 killed in the multiple explosions that rocked the island nation on Sunday, Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy has said.
“I am deeply pained at the loss of our people in the #colombo attacks. Out of the seven missing after the #TerrorAttack, four have been declared dead...," Kumaraswamy tweeted.
The chief minister said the four workers were part of a seven-member team which was on vacation in Sri Lanka. The deceased have been identified as Lakshmana Gowda Ramesh, KM Lakshminarayan, M Rangappa and KG Hanumantharayappa, while three — H Shivukumar, A Maregowda and H Puttaraju — are missing. It is learnt that the party workers, most of whom belonged to Chikkabalapura and Tumkuru constituencies, had left for Colombo on April 20 after Phase 2 of polling. They had booked two rooms — 618 and 619 — at the Shangri-La Hotel.
The State Chief Secretary’s office is in constant touch with the Resident Commissioner at Karnataka Bhavan located at New Delhi, he said. The office is also in touch with families of the victims and the missing people for further information on them, the chief minister said.
Remembering them as “committed workers”, Kumaraswamy said he was deeply pained at the loss of their lives in the heinous attack. The Karnataka chief minister said he was with their families and prayed to the Almighty to give strength to them and their near and dear ones to bear the grief.
Union Minister Sadanand Gowda visited the kin of Hanumantharayappa to express his condolences. Senior Congress leader and Chikkabalapura candidate Veerappa Moily too visited the home of Lakshmi Narayana in Nelmangala. “The whole world will have to wake up and condemn this brutal act, even government of India will have to take proper steps to ensure that these terrorist are caught and punished. Several Indians there belonged to Yelahanka and neighboring areas, so we are getting all information from the embassy there,” he said.
Home minister MB Patil also assured the families of the victims that necessary steps would be taken in order to facilitate their travel.
A string of eight powerful blasts, including suicide attacks, struck churches and luxury hotels frequented by foreigners in Sri Lanka on Easter Sunday, killing over 290 people and shattering a decade of peace in the island nation since the end of the brutal civil war with the LTTE.
Kumaraswamy had on Sunday strongly condemned the terrorist attack, saying terrorism is an act of cowardice and an attack on humanity. "Terrorism is an act of cowardice and an attack on humanity. I strongly condemn the #TerroristAttack in #Colombo, Sri Lanka, where over 150 people have been killed and more than 300 injured," he had tweeted.
Comments
0 comment