At least 10 Indians, including seven JD(S) workers from Karnataka who were on a visit to Sri Lanka, have been killed in the multiple blasts in the island nation, the state government said on Monday, 22 April.
A leisure trip to Sri Lanka proved fatal for the group of seven JD(S) workers when the blast took place very close to the dining table they were having breakfast at in Colombo’s Shangri-La hotel, one of the major targets of the deadliest terror strikes in Sri Lanka, family members said.
Earlier on 22 April, Karnataka Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy confirmed that five of seven JD(S) workers, who were touring Colombo, were killed in the series of bomb blasts in Sri Lanka.
On Tuesday, 23 April, officials at the Indian High Commission in Sri Lanka confirmed that the two others from the group had also lost their lives.
The deceased have been identified as Hanumantharayappa, M Rangappa, KM Lakshminarayan Lakshmana, Gowda Ramesh, H Puttaraju, H Shivakumar and A Maregowda.
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“I’m deeply shocked at the loss of our JD(S) party workers, whom I know personally. The chief secretary’s office is in constant touch with the resident commissioner at Karnataka Bhavan, New Delhi, and the families of the victims and the missing persons for further information on them.”HD Kumaraswamy, Karnataka Chief Minister
Deaths Confirmed Over Three Days
The deaths of the JD(S) workers were confirmed by Indian High Commission and the office of the Karnataka chief minister over the last two days. Initially information was available only about two men who were killed in the attacks> However, over the next two days, the other five men were also confirmed dead.
According to the Indian High Commission in Sri Lanka 10 Indians have lost their lives in the blast in the island nation.
The initial confirmation regarding the demise of the two people from Karnataka came out when Rajat, a family friend of KG Hanumantharayappa, contacted the Indian embassy in Sri Lanka through Twitter.
“After I sent a tweet, I got a call from the Indian embassy, who asked me to verify the details with a helpline number. The helpline number put me in touch with another official from the embassy, who took the details from us. Around 3 am (on Monday), I got a call confirming his (Hanumantharayappa’s) death,” said Rajat.
Left for Columbo Two Days Before
Hanumantharayappa was an active member of the JD(S) and prominent local leader in Bengaluru rural region. He was also a land developer and a resident of North Bengaluru.
After the first phase of election on 18 April, Hanumantharayappa along with six other party workers planned a vacation in Sri Lanka.
They left Bengaluru on Saturday, 20 April, and reached Colombo on Sunday morning. “His son told me that they reached Colombo at 7 am. Around 9 am, uncle (Hanumantharayappa) called his son and informed about their arrival. At that point he had come from his hotel to the restaurant for breakfast. That was his last call and around 12:30 pm, the family heard about the blast on the news,” said Rajat.
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