Pahalgam terror attack: Two from Andhra Pradesh shot dead by militants

Retired SBI employee and senior architect among 26 civilians shot dead by militants in J&K, mourned by family and friends.

A retired employee of State Bank of India J.S. Chandramouli — a resident of Visakhapatnam and Somisetti Madhusudhan Rao — senior architect at a software company, are among the 26 tourists and civilians, who were shot dead by the militants in Jammu and Kashmir’s (J&K’s) Pahalgam on Tuesday (April 22, 2025) evening.

The 68-year-old banker had gone to J&K as a tourist along with his wife and two other families. In total, six of them had gone to Kashmir, said his brother-in-law B.V.S. Nageswara Rao, who is the DSP of Anti-Corruption Bureau, A.P. Police, posted in Visakhapatnam.

According to the reports, there were six of them, and immediately after the terror attack, people ran helter-skelter to protect themselves from the fire opened by the terrorists, who claim to be from The Resistance Front, an off-shoot of Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT).

In the melee, my brother-in-law had gone missing and till late in the night his body was not traced and identified. “We initially expected that he might be injured and was shifted to a hospital, as he was separated from the group and his phone was not reachable. We could reach my sister J. Naga Mani and she and the remaining members of the group are safe,” said Mr. Nageswara Rao.

Chandramouli, who is fondly remembered as Chandra or Mouli by his former colleagues, say that he was an affable man who was always ready to help others and even addressed the grievances of the customers with a smile.

He was a very social and helpful man and was the secretary of our Pensioners Club. He would be the first to participate in rallies such as Pinkathon or anything that concerned social or environmental issues. He was also an avid traveller and loved to explore new places, reminisced Ramanamurthy Naidu, former SBI manager and his friend and colleague.

He is survived by two daughters and both are in the U.S. In fact, one of his daughters left for the U.S. on April 16 and he and his wife had left for J&K on April 18, said Mr. Ramanamurthy.