As the death toll has reached nearly 300 in the bombing at the heartland of Sri Lanka leaving more than 560 injured, several Janata Dal (Secular) party leaders from Karnataka have been reported to be missing there.
According to the media reports, seven JD(S) party leaders have gone missing in Sri Lanka and two of them have been confirmed to be dead after the serial blasts at eight locations targeting the churches and five-star hotels.
Four JD(S) leaders from Karnataka have been reported to be dead in the attack. The deceased have been identified as Lakshmana Gowda Ramesh, K M Lakshminarayan, M Rangappa and KG Hanumantharayappa.
The missing JD(S) leaders have been reported as H Puttaraju from Arogya Huttanahalli, H Shivakumar and A Maregowda. They had left to Sri Lanka from Bengaluru on April 20.
The party leaders had left to the island nation after campaigning for the Congress candidate representing Chikkaballapur constituency Veerappa Moily in Bengaluru. They had booked two rooms at the Shangri-La Hotel in Colombo, one of the five-star hotels bombed in the attack. They were living in room no. 618 and 619 of the hotel.
Karnataka chief minister HD Kumaraswamy responded to the incident suspecting the death of two party workers. "I am shocked to hear that a 7-member team of JDS workers from Karnataka, who were touring Colombo, has gone missing after the bomb blasts in Colombo. Two of them are feared killed in the terror strikes. I am in constant touch with the Indian high commission on the reports of those missing.", he tweeted from his official handle.
