Nellore: Grief and outrage engulfed Kavali following the cold-blooded killing of Madhusudhan Rao, a native of the coastal town Nellore, in the brutal terror attack at Pahalgam, Kashmir.
The body of Madhsudhan arrived on Thursday morning at Kavali, amid wailings of his family members and relatives. His final journey began from his residence in Kummari Veedhi in the evening and proceeded to Budangunta crematorium, where his last rites got performed with full state honours.
Ministers Satyakumar and Nadendla Manohar carried the body on their shoulders from the entry point of the graveyard to the pyre, amid chanting of people “Madhusudhan Amar Rahe”.
Others who attended the funeral included minister Anam Ramanarayana Reddy, MLAs Somireddy Chandramohan Reddy and Kavya Krishna Reddy, and district collector O. Anand.
As the funeral procession moved through the streets of Kavali, the community turned out in large numbers to bid a sorrowful farewell to a man whose life terrorists cut short cruelly.
AP Deputy Chief Minister Pawan Kalyan condemned the cruel attack on tourists. Addressing media persons after paying tributes to the mortal remains of Madhusudhan Rao, he said “The barbaric killings, especially shooting someone who lay holding the hand of his spouse, is deeply disturbing.”
Pawan Kalyan said, “Madhusudhan Rao’s wife and children described the horror… I felt a wrenching pain just listening to them,” he said. “What kind of twisted ideology demands to know one’s religion before taking their life,” he asked.
Endowment minister Ramanarayana Reddy expressed his anguish saying, “Telling a pleading woman, ‘Go tell your Prime Minister,’ is beyond inhumane. In a nation bound by constitutional equality and communal harmony, this kind of brutality is unacceptable.”
Health minister Satyakumar Yadav called it “a dark day in India’s history,” adding, “The fact that two of the victims are from Andhra Pradesh is even more painful. Those behind this massacre must pay the price.”
Satyakumar emphasised that the country must speak in one voice.