Give martyr status to Pahalgam terror attack victims: Rahul to PM

Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday to accord the status of a martyr to those killed in the Pahalgam terror attack.

In a post on X, the Congress leader said he stands with the families of those killed in the Pahalgam attack and backs their demand that the victims be given the status of a martyr.

"I stand with the families of those killed in the Pahalgam attack in their grief and in their demand for martyr status to them.

"The prime minister is requested to respect the sentiments of the families of those who lost their lives in this tragedy by giving this honour to them," Gandhi said in his post on the microblogging platform in Hindi.

The Congress MP from Rae Bareli met the family members of a Pahalgam attack victim in Kanpur on Wednesday and said they want martyr status for the deceased.

"I met a victim's family in Kanpur. They asked me to send a message to Narendra Modi. On behalf of all those families, I want to tell the prime minister -- 'prime minister, they have said that our children have been martyred. We want you to give them the status of a martyr and give them respect'," the Congress leader told reporters on Wednesday.

Gandhi visited the family members of Shubham Dwivedi in Kanpur and said the opposition is demanding a special session of Parliament to ensure that the Pahalgam attack victims get justice.

Twenty-six people, mostly tourists, were killed and several injured when terrorists opened fire at a meadow near the popular tourist town of Pahalgam in south Kashmir's Anantnag district on April 22.