TEXAS, USA, April 18, 2007: (HPI note: The following is a press release from HSC.) The Hindu Students Council (HSC) and all of its chapters extend their condolences to its fellow members at Virginia Tech and their campus community at large. The senseless shooting of 32 members of the Virginia Tech community has shocked the nation, but our shock pales in comparison to the loss, grief, and mourning that the students, staff, and faculty of Virginia Tech are experiencing right now. Satyasheel Korpe, President of the Virginia Tech chapter of HSC, reported, “No HSC members have been harmed, but two members of the Indian community [were victims of the shooting], a professor and a student.” Those two victims, Professor G. V. Loganathan, a professor of civil engineering from Chennai, India, and Mina Panchal, a first-year student from Mumbai, India, were both killed in the classrooms of Norris Hall on the campus. Prof. Loganathan was a regular attendee to HSC events on campus. HSC, as part of the global Indian community, extends its sympathy to their families, as well as the families of the other victims.
Sunny Katyal, the past President of the Virginia Tech chapter (2003-2005), was extremely shaken by the massacre at his alma mater. “We are all in deep shock and sorrow over this senseless tragedy,” he said. In an outpour of grief, he felt that as institutions devoted to learning, universities and their campuses were once considered a safe, “sacred ground” but not anymore. Having graduated from Virginia Tech in 2006, Katyal’s ties to the student community are still strong. Now living in Northern Virginia, he had returned to the Blacksburg campus just last month for a visit to participate in a community service event. He said he had made plans to revisit the campus in the near future, “before all of this happened.” Hearing about HSC’s plans to respond to the tragedy, he was thankful for sharing the grief of the student community.
HSC will be establishing a portal on its website, URL above, for members across the nation to express sympathy and support to their fellow members at Virginia Tech as they work through this tough ordeal. Chapters will also be holding prayer meetings on their respective campuses to express their support for the Virginia Tech community at this tragic time. Gunshots might have shattered the calm morning of April 16 at Virginia Tech, but the Hindu Students Council pledges itself to do anything it can to help restore the quiet calm community that all of its members should enjoy on their respective campuses.