Congress leader Venugopal visits terror victim Ramachandran's family, lauds his daughter's courage

Kochi: The Congress and the opposition Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) led by it will stand with the central government in all the efforts to give a fitting reply to the Pahalgam terror attack, Congress general secretary (organisation) K C Venugopal, MP, said in Kochi on Saturday. Venugopal said the April 22 attack in Jammu and Kashmir, which claimed 27 lives, was directly supervised by Pakistan. He was speaking to the media after visiting the family of N Ramachandran, who was killed in the terror attack, at their residence in Edappally.

Venugopal said it was more saddening that a person from Kerala also fell victim to the terror attack, which shocked the nation and the world.

"The Pahalgam terror attack happens when I was in Srinagar to attend the Parliament's Public Accounts Committee meeting. I had attended the ceremony organised to pay homage to Ramachandran, but I could not meet the family then. Today, I visited them, and I didn't know how to console them. They witnessed the murder. I salute the courage shown by his daughter. I saw her statement given to the media. Even in the time of grief, she showed an exemplary model to the country. I commend her," Venugopal said. Ramachandran was shot dead by a terrorist in front of his daughter, Arathi Menon, and her eight-year-old twin sons. She managed to keep the tragedy a secret from her mother, who was also in Pahalgam with them, until they returned to Kochi the next day. In a brief and clear statement to the media, she narrated how the terrorist murdered her father and how she managed to escape with her kids. She had also thanked the local Kashmiri people for helping her throughout the crisis.

Venugopal said the Congress's stand is that it is always with the government in the uncompromising fight against terrorism. The Congress Working Committee (CWC) passed a resolution on this stand in an immediate meeting held after the incident. The opposition party also made its stand clear at the all-party meeting, Venugopal said.

Ernakulam MP Hibi Eden, District Congress Committee president Muhammed Shiyas and councillors Deepthi Mary Varghese and Santha Vijayan accompanied Venugopal.