Rahul Gandhi meets Pahalgam terror attack victim's family in Kanpur

LUCKNOW: Congress MP Rahul Gandhi, on Wednesday, visited Kanpur where he met the family of Shubham Dwivedi, who was killed in the Pahalgam terror attack on April 22.

He was on a two-day visit to his constituency, Rae Bareli and Amethi.

Congress MP Rahul Gandhi, on Wednesday, visited Kanpur, where he met the family of Shubham Dwivedi, who was killed in the Pahalgam terror attack on April 22.

While consoling the bereaved family, the Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha said that he and Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge had appealed to the Centre to convene a special session of Parliament for holding a discussion over the issue.

Sharing the grief with the bereaved family, Rahul Gandhi said that he had also suffered this pain twice by losing his grandmother and his father. “I will write to PM to accord martyr’s status to Shubham,” he said while consoling the wife of the victim.

He also made the family talk to Wayanad MP and his sister Priyanka Gandhi Vadra over the phone. He assured the family of getting the severest punishment for the terrorists wherever they may be.

Earlier, the Congress MP arrived in Amethi for the first time after last year's parliamentary polls and began his day with an inspection of the ordnance factory in Munshiganj.

Rahul Gandhi had laid the foundation stone of the factory during the UPA rule in 2007.

He also inspected the Indo-Asian Rifles Private Limited unit located on the same campus which was inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on March 3, 2019. Both facilities have now begun manufacturing rifles.

Gandhi spent nearly an hour inside the factories, examining the rifles and interacting with officials to understand the production processes.

The Congress leader then visited the Sanjay Gandhi Hospital, where he inaugurated a new heart unit meant for open heart surgery, built at a cost of approximately Rs 3.5 crore.

During his Amethi visit, Gandhi also reviewed the progress of the Indira Gandhi College of Nursing, a project he is personally associated with. He interacted with students and faculty members and took stock of the institution's activities. Both the Sanjay Gandhi Hospital and the Indira Gandhi College of Nursing are managed by the Sanjay Gandhi Memorial Trust, New Delhi, of which Congress leader Sonia Gandhi is the chairperson and Rahul Gandhi a trustee.

Congress MP from Amethi, KL Sharma, accompanied Rahul Gandhi during his visit to the district on Wednesday. However, ahead of Rahul Gandhi’s arrival, posters labelling him as a "supporter of terror" were seen around Amethi town. Near the guesthouse gate of the Sanjay Gandhi Hospital, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) workers burnt his effigy and raised slogans demanding his departure from Amethi.