Bengaluru: The death of JD(S) workers H Puttaraju and A Maregowda in the Sunday’s blasts has been confirmed by the High Commission of India in Colombo today.
“Regret to confirm the deaths of two more Indian nationals Mr A Maregowda and Mr H Puttaraju in the blasts in Sri Lanka on Sunday, taking the total number of Indian deaths in the tragedy to 10 as of now,” tweeted the Commission, which was re-tweeted by External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj.
Karnataka Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy had named both Maregowda and Puttaraju in the list of missing JD(S) workers yesterday.
Six other party workers who had gone on the trip after the election campaigns were among those killed: Ramesh, K M Lakshminarayan, M Rangappa, K G Hanumantharayappa and Narayan Chandrashekar and H Shivakumar.
“It was a long wait… While those with him (Puttaraju) were declared dead and their bodies have been traced, we had not got any information about his status,” said a friend of 37-year-old Puttaraju’s brother.
“I spoke to the Indian HighCommission @IndiainSL t’day and enquired about the situation with regard to people from Ktka who were injured in the #TerrorAttack. “I have requested them to speed up the process of bringing the mortal remains of the deceased to the state at the earliest,” Kumaraswamy has tweeted.
On Easter Sunday, a series of bomb blasts tore through three churches and three luxury hotels killing 290 people.