Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan visits Pahalgam terror victim''s house

Kochi | Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Sunday visited the house of N Ramachandran (65), one of those killed in the Pahalgam terror attack in Kashmir.

Finance Minister K N Balagopal and CPI(M) state secretary M V Govindan also accompanied the Chief Minister to the residence on Mangattu Road, Edappally, near here.

Vijayan spent a few minutes with the family, consoling Ramachandran’s wife Sheela and daughter Arathi.

He later left without speaking to the media.

Ramachandran’s last rites were held with full state honours on Thursday.

Earlier, the Chief Minister had condemned the terror attack, describing it as an incident that "shocked the conscience of the country."

He said such assaults on humanity must never be allowed to recur.

"Our grief is doubled by the fact that there is a Keralite among those who lost their lives there. We share the grief of relatives of the deceased N Ramachandran," Vijayan had said.

Ramachandran was holidaying in Kashmir along with his wife Sheela, daughter Arathi, who works in Dubai, and her twin sons. He was gunned down in front of his daughter and grandsons.

Terrorists opened fire at a tourist location near Kashmir's Pahalgam town on the afternoon of April 22, killing 26 people, mostly tourists, in what is the deadliest attack in the Valley since the Pulwama strike in 2019.