The Punjab government Tuesday said it would bear the entire expenditure
of transporting the bodies of those who were killed when a gunman opened
fire at devotees at a gurdwara in the US state of Wisconsin.
Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal, who was himself headed for Wisconsin for the wedding function of cabinet colleague Surjit Singh Rakhra's niece, said the
Punjab government would bear the cost of transporting the bodies to
India for the last rites as a mark of respect.
A lone gunman,
Wade Michael Page, described as a white supremacist, Sunday morning
opened fire at devotees in the gurdwara in the Milwaukee suburb of Oak
Creek, spreading terror in the area and leaving the community stunned.
He killed six people before he was shot dead.
According to a
spokesperson of the Chief Minister's Office, Badal contacted Indian
Ambassador Nirupama Rao Monday night to tell her that the state
government would extend all possible help to the bereaved families of
the victims of the incident.
"The chief minister sought
cooperation from the Indian embassy in the US to facilitate the smooth
transportation of the bodies by keeping close liaison with the
concerned agencies in the US government," the spokesperson said.
On
Monday, Badal had visited the residence of two brothers, Sita Singh and
Ranjit Singh, of New Delhi's Tilak Nagar who were killed in the
shootout.
He has also announced an ex-gratia grant of Rs.100,000 each for the next of kin of the Sikh victims killed in the incident.
The
six killed were Satwant Singh Kaleka, 65; Sita Singh, 41; Ranjit Singh,
49; Prakash Singh, 39, and Suveg Singh, 84 and one woman, 41-year-old
Paramjit Kaur.
While brothers Sita Singh and Ranjit Singh
hailed from New Delhi, Parkash Singh was from Hardwar district
(Uttrakhand), Paramjit Kaur was from Punjab's Ludhiana district while
Suveg Singh was from Patiala.
In Patiala town, relatives of
Satwant Singh Kaleka, the president of the Oak Creek gurdwara, who was
killed while bravely fighting the gunman, are in a state of shock.
Kaleka, who had migrated with his family to the US in 1982 and was a
successful businessman there, was the brother-in-law of Punjab minister
Rakhra. Family and friends, many of whom were going for the wedding of
his niece in Wisconsin, were shocked by the turn of events.
"Everyone was getting ready for Rakhra Sahib's niece's wedding and now
this tragedy has hit the family," a relative in Patiala town, 80 km from
here, said.
Eyewitnesses inside the gurdwara had told police
that Kaleka, a deeply religious man, bravely fought the gunman with a
knife before falling to gunshot wounds. He had been one of the main
founders of the gurdwara on a sprawling 10-acre campus.
"We are
proud of the bravery and courage that my brother showed to stop the
attacker," Kaleka's brother Amarjit Singh said in Patiala.
Punjab to pay for transporting bodies of gurdwara victims
