Bodies of JD-S activists arrive in Bengaluru from SL

Mortal remains of the seven Janata Dal-Secular (JD-S) activists, who died in the Colombo blasts on Sunday, arrived here from Sri Lanka on Wednesday, an official said.

"The bodies were flown from Colombo in separate flights of SriLankan Airlines in coffins and taken to their homes to allow the public to pay homage before the last rites," state protocol Seputy Secretary Vijay Mahantesh said in a statement here.

The bodies were of K.G. Hanumantharayappa, K.M. Lakshminarayana, M. Rangappa, H. Shivakumar, A. Maregowda, H. Puttaraju and L.G. Ramesh.

The activists went to Sri Lanka on a holiday on April 20 after campaigning in the second phase of polling in the Lok Sabha elections on April 18 in the state's southern region, including Bengaluru.

All of them hailed from Nelamangala in Tumkur district, about 50km northeast of Bengaluru.

"The (JD-S) activists were staying in Shangri-La star hotel where one of the serial bomb blasts went off, ripping through the restaurant when they were having breakfast," a party official told IANS earlier.

Besides these seven, three others from Bengaluru also died in the blast. They were S.R. Nagaraj Reddy, Narayan Chandrashekhar and Remurai Tulasiram.

"Reddy's body arrived here on Tuesday night, while the bodies of other two were yet to be flown from Colombo, pending formalities," added Mahantesh.

JD-S supremo H.D. Deve Gowda and his third son and state Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy paid floral tributes to the activists and consoled their bereaved families at their respective homes.

Puttaraju's sibling Rudresh told IANS on Monday that his elder brother called him on Sunday morning and said he landed in Colombo along with six others safely and were in a hotel (Shangri La).

"There was no call again from him after the blasts. None of the family members of the other six activists also got call from any of them after the blasts," Rudresh added.

The activists flew to the island nation on April 20 on a four-day holiday trip for sight-seeing in Colombo and Kandy. They were booked to fly back on April 24.

--IANS

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