The Indian community is in a state of shock as it prepares for the funeral of Professor GV Loganathan who was killed on Monday.
WASHINGTON: The Indian community in Virginia is in a state of shock and grief as it prepares for the funeral of Professor GV Loganathan, who was killed in a shooting spree in the Virginia Tech University on Monday.
"Several members of the Loganathan's family are expected to attend the funeral which will be held at Blacksburg, Virginia," officials at the Indian Embassy said.
"The mission is ready to extend any assistance that is being asked or required," they said.
In fact two senior officials of the Embassy who were rushed to Blacksburg in the aftermath of the killings have returned to Washington after having made the necessary contacts including with University officials, law enforcement agencies and the Indian student community, they said.
The senior Embassy officials are also said to have met family members of the Professor Loganathan and Minal Panchal, the Indian student killed in the bloody rampage on Monday.
Arrangements are in place to meet the family members of Professor Loganathan including on the logistics front with representatives of the mission ready to travel with the family members by air or road to Virginia Tech campus, they added.
"There is the state of shock and grief among Indian students and community in the Blacksburg, Virginia area and beyond for the deaths of Professor GV Loganathan and Minal Panchal," said a graduate student at the University.
The student and teacher were said to have been in the same class room when the shooting, which claimed 33 lives, including that of shooter, began. And they both are said to have lost their lives there.
As of Wednesday's afternoon the body of Professor Loganathan has not been returned to his family and the same goes for that of Panchal. In the case of the 26-year-old student from Mumbai, it is said that if her body is returned to family members by Friday the last rites would be performed on Saturday in Baltimore.
Panchal's mother was in the US on a visit to her other daughter and son-in-law in New Jersey when tragedy struck the family.
In New York, the Virginia Tech Chapter of the Hindu Students Council (HSC) has expressed its shock and grief at the shooting incident.
Satyasheel Korpe, president of the Chapter, said they had received messages of sympathy from all other chapters of the Council.
Prof Loganathan had been regular attendee of council's events on the campus and would be greatly missed, he said.
Sunny Katyal, the former president of the chapter, said he was extremely shaken by the massacre at his alma mater. "We are all in deep shock and sorrow over this senseless tragedy."
"HSC would establish a portal on its website for members across the nation to express sympathy and support to their fellow members at Virginia Tech as they work through this tough ordeal," Korpe said.
Chapters will also be holding prayer meetings on their respective campuses to express their support for the Virginia Tech community.
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