Anguish as 8 Lanka blasts victims’ bodies reach Bengaluru

BENGALURU: The remains of eight persons from Karnataka, who were killed in the Sri Lanka terror blasts, were brought to back the city in separate flights and handed over to their families for last rites. The state government is waiting for further information on two more persons, who were also killed in the blasts, from the Lankan authorities.
The bodies of JD(S) members M Ranganna, KG Hanumantharayappa, Lakshminarayana, H Shivakumar, A Mare Gowda, H Puttaraju and LG Ramesh, and businessman Nagaraja Reddy, a relative of BJP legislator SR Vishwanath, were handed over the devastated families for last rites. Further information on Narayan Chandrashekar and Remurai Tulasi Ram is awaited.
Apart from relatives, scores of people gathered at the homes of the victims on Wednesday to pay their respects and comfort the families, which had waited for over 48 to receive the bodies. JD(S) supremo HD Deve Gowda and chief minister HD Kumaraswamy joined the mourners at Ranganna’s and Hanumanthrayappa’s residences in Nelamangala and Dasarahalli, respectively. BJP’s Vishwanath took charge of the proceedings at Nagaraja’s house in BTM Layout, south Bengaluru.
The final rites of Ranganna were performed at a family-owned playground in Chokkasandra, known as ‘Ranga XI Grounds’, where he used to organise cricket tournaments, a relative said. Ranganna loved playing cricket and had his own team team, ‘Ranga XI’.
The seven JD(S) members had travelled to Sri Lanka on April 20 for a short holiday and had booked return flights for Wednesday. They were at Shangri-La hotel in Colombo when the suicide bomber struck there on Easter Sunday.
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