Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah Wednesday announced an ex gratia payment of Rs 10 lakh to the next of kin of the two men from the state killed in the Pahalgam terror attack in Jammu and Kashmir. This is in addition to the Rs 10 lakh compensation announced by the Jammu and Kashmir government to the families of each of the 26 killed in the attack Tuesday.
The bodies of Bharat Bhushan, 41, a Bengaluru resident, and Manjunath Rao, 47, from Shivamogga, were flown into Kempegowda International Airport in the state capital from Srinagar via Delhi in the early hours of Thursday. The funerals for both are scheduled to take place later in the day. They were among the 25 tourists and one local resident killed in Baisaran, an off-road meadow in South Kashmir’s Pahalgam.
Bhushan, who resided in the Mathikere area of Bengaluru, was originally from Ranebennur in Karnataka’s Haveri district. His father Chanaveerappa, retired as a deputy director of public instruction and now lives in Bengaluru with Bhushan’s mother Shailakumari. The family moved from Devi Nagar in Ranebennur to Bengaluru a few years ago.
Bhushan was touring Kashmir with his wife Sujatha and their three-year-old son, Havish. Bhushan was shot dead by the militants at a place popularly called ‘Mini Switzerland’ near Pahalgam.
Manjunath, a relator, was touring Kashmir with his wife Pallavi, a bank manager at the Birur branch of the Malnad Areca Marketing Cooperative Society, and their son Abhijeya Rao, 18. The family was reportedly in Kashmir to celebrate Abhijeya scoring 98 per cent in the pre-university (PU) exams.
A video posted by Pallavi on social media just a few hours before the attack showed the couple enjoying a shikara ride and expressing their happiness about the trip organised by a travel agency.
Another man killed in the attack, Madhusudhan Somishetty, a native of Andhra Pradesh, resided in Bengaluru’s Ramamurthy Nagar. His body was set to be flown into Chennai via Mumbai from Srinagar.
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Abjaya M Rao, another resident of Karnataka, sustained a minor injury in the terror attack and was reportedly stable. Siddaramaiah had earlier said that over 40 people from the state were visiting Kashmir when the attack took place.
Bangalore South MP Tejasvi Surya and Karnataka Labour Minister Santosh Lad coordinated with local authorities in Srinagar to assist the families of the deceased with the necessary procedures.
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