Hours before she was felled by bullets at her residence in Bengaluru, Kannada journalist Gauri Lankesh had praised Keralites for their spirit of secularism.
In a Facebook post around 3 pm yesterday, she had also expressed hope that someone would get her a "nice beef dish" on her next visit to Kerala.
She had made the remarks while sharing a Facebook post of former union minister Shashi Tharoor on a group of nuns performing 'Thiruvathirakali (a Hindu group dance as part of onam festivities).
"Keralites celebrating Onam, religious differences be damned!!!!! this is the reason why they call their 'country' (I call country, did you notice cheddis??) as 'God's Own Country' (sic)," she had said.
"Please, my mallu friends, please keep up your spirit of secularism (PS hopefully next time I am in God's own country, someone will get me nice beef dish!!!!. And cheddis be damned!!!!) (sic)," Lankesh had added.
The 55-year old journalist was shot dead by unidentified assailants at her house last night.
Tharoor in a tweet said, "I never knew #gaurilankesh.But she shared my@Facebookpost on onam a few hours before she was killed. Deeply sad."
In a series of tweets, the Thiruvananthapuram MP said "Assassination is the most extreme form of censorship. #Gaurilankesh said things some people did not like 2hear. She was killed4doing her job (sic)".
"Saddened by the murder of #Gaurilankesh. India wasn't supposed to be a country where journalists are silenced by bullets. Her voice rings on (sic)," he tweeted.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)